DEVELOPING: Grand Junction Dairy Queen stabbing suspect dies after officer-involved shooting, multi-vehicle crash
UPDATE (Saturday): The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) has provided an update into the situation that occurred yesterday in Grand Junction.
MCSO said that at 6:30 p.m., officers with the Grand Junction Police Department (GJPD) were dispatched to the Dairy Queen at 709 North Avenue after receiving multiple calls about a man inside the restaurant with a knife.
The man has allegedly stabbed a customer before exiting the building and getting inside his vehicle in the parking lot, where GJPD officers found him as they arrived. An officer-involved-shooting then ensued.
MCSO said the suspect then drove off, crashing into a vehicle as he left the parking lot. The suspect was eventually stopped after striking the four vehicles previously mentioned in KKCO’s coverage from Friday in the intersection of North 1st st and North Ave.
A knocked down telephone pole was also seen by KKCO reporters on the road by the Sinclair gas station at 201 North Avenue.
Two people were hospitalized from the incident, including the customer stabbed and one of the motorists hit.
MCSO said the suspect was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The suspect’s identity and manner of death have yet to be released by the Mesa County Coroner’s Office.
MCSO said that the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) is continuing to investigate the incident.
Anyone with information or video of Friday’s incident is asked to call Investigator Kandyce Stuckenschneider at (970) 244-3266 or by email at [email protected] .
MCSO said that per GJPD’s policy, the involved officers have been placed on administrative leave.
KKCO will continue to provide updates on this story as more information becomes known.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) – A heavy police presence is currently occupying the area of North 1st street and North Avenue, as well as North Avenue and 7th Street.
KJCT is awaiting confirmation from law officials on what transpired, but a KKCO crew was sent out to the scene and noted that the Dairy Queen on 709 North Avenue was taped off, and that there was visible glass strewn across the parking lot.
Just a block away, a knocked down telephone pole was laying in the road by the Sinclair gas station at 201 North Avenue.
Grand Junction Police cruisers were blocking the intersection of 1st and North Avenue. In that area, crew could see four vehicles in the eastbound lane that sustained significant damage. Among those vehicles was a gray truck that was flipped over, two vehicles that had collided into each other and a white car that had damage to its back left side.
KJCT has not received official confirmation on if the two scenes are related. The Grand Junction Police Department (GJPD) is asking the public to avoid these areas.
KJCT will continue to update this article as more becomes known.
