Red Rocks Amphitheater Shooting Leads To Venue Lockdown

A shooting at the Red Rocks outdoor amphitheater Thursday night put the entire venue on lockdown. The public shooting resulted in three wounded but no deaths. It happened at the end of the “Feed the Rocks” concert featuring Nas, Schoolboy Q, and Flying Lotus.

The Huffington Post reports that the victims’ wounds were not life-threatening. Authorities are currently seeking the shooter or shooters in the incident. The shooting victims were in a white sport-utility vehicle when they were fired upon. They drove away from the Red Rocks amphitheater and were found by police at an intersection in Denver, nearly 15 miles away.

USA Today quotes another department spokesperson, Jacki Kelley, who explained the victims’ flight from Red Rocks:

“This initially came out as a chase, as a pursuit. It wasn’t until Denver police got this vehicle stopped that they realized it was headed to the hospital. They were headed into town and didn’t want to wait for medical.”

According to The Huffington Post, police then took the three shooting victims to the hospital.

Back at the Red Rocks amphitheater, officers searched vehicles as they slowly trickled out of the venue’s parking lot. The shooting happened around 10:30 pm, but the last cars did not make it out of the lot until around 3 am due to the vehicle searches conducted as part of the lockdown. Police also continued to interview witnesses as they searched vehicles leaving the amphitheater.

Concertgoers told USA Today that they could not remember previous shootings at the venue. Their reactions to the incident were varied.

“My friends got pretty emotional and choked up by it because they didn’t understand what was going on, or if someone was on the loose,” said one concert-goer.

Another added:

“It’s not the place to be doing it, this is all about a fun time, people can’t be doing that (at Red Rocks).”

Most of the park was reopened this morning, but the area immediately surrounding the shooting remained sealed off. Skrillex, the Grammy award winning electronic music artist, is set to play a two-night stand starting tonight (Friday June 20), but setup for the show is being delayed as investigators continue their work.

In addition to being a premium live music venue, the Red Rocks area is popular with joggers and cyclists.

A Denver area music publication, Reverb, reports that the concert was a benefit for GRASP, a Denver area gang rescue and support organization, among other causes. They also reported that the Denver Police have jurisdiction over the amphitheater until a felony is committed, at which point incidents come under the purview of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.

Police are continuing to search for the shooter.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]