A drug deal was likely at the center of a mass shooting in downtown Denver near where the Nuggets won their first NBA championship hours earlier, according to police.
Two people were taken into custody in connection with Tuesday morning’s shooting, including one who was wounded. Nine other people were also wounded, and all are expected to survive, the Denver Police Department said at a news conference.
The incident occurred about 12:30 a.m. local time in an area where crowds had gathered to celebrate the Nuggets’ series-clinching win over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Police say they recovered from the scene a “significant quantity” of what were believed to be fentanyl pills, cash and five handguns.
Five or six of the people wounded in the shooting were not believed to be involved with the drug deal, according to authorities. Ten people were hospitalized, including five who remained at the Denver Health Medical Center as of Tuesday afternoon. Four people required emergency surgery, officials said.
Officials previously said most of the crowd had dispersed by the time the shooting occurred. It happened in an area on Market Street populated by bars. None of the people wounded, which include nine men and a woman, have been named publicly, nor were the people taken into custody.
Police were prepared for crowds to congregate in the area, which is located about a mile from the Nuggets’ Ball Arena, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said.
“What we couldn’t have planned for was a drug deal right in the middle of a celebration,” Thomas said.
With News Wire Services
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