One person has been arrested in a shooting outside the El Paso County courthouse that caused chaos and confusion in courtrooms Thursday morning.
Colorado Springs Police announced in a post on X at 12:03 p.m. that there is one suspect in custody in the shooting, but did not state the person’s gender or age or explain how or when the person was arrested.
Colorado Springs police officers just after 10 a.m. found one person dead on the ground outside the El Paso County Judicial Building at 270 S. Tejon St. with an apparent gunshot wound, Colorado Springs Police spokesperson Ira Cronin said in a news conference.
🚨HAPPENING NOW🚨
CSPD is responding to a shooting at the El Paso County Courthouse. PIO en route. Media staging will be at the corner of Tejon and Vermijo. Media should approach from the south.
— Colorado Springs Police Department (@CSPDPIO) November 16, 2023
Police did not believe anyone else was shot in the isolated incident, Cronin said, and it was “not an active shooter situation.” Cronin confirmed police were investigating the shooting as a homicide.
He did not have any arrest or suspect information available Thursday morning.
Colorado Springs Fire Department spokesperson Ashley Franco said fire crews treated two people for minor injuries but she did not say how they were injured.
Cronin said the El Paso County Coroner’s Office would identify the person killed, though several agencies confirmed none of their employees were injured.
Rob McCallum, Colorado Judicial Department spokesperson, said all judicial department staff were accounted for, and no Colorado State Public Defender employees were shot, spokesman James Karbach said.
Confusion reigned across courtrooms starting at about 10:15 a.m., when at least one judge asked everyone to come into her courtroom for safety, a review of live-streamed proceedings showed.
About 10:30 a.m., two judges told their courtrooms that court was canceled for the rest of the day. It appeared that the public was being asked to evacuate the courthouse, but some judges kept calling hearings while others were evacuating.
Sheriff’s deputies then could be seen on the livestreams escorting people from the building.
Due to police activity, the El Paso County Courthouse is closed for the remainder of the day. Anyone with a court appearance today can call 719 452-5000 to reschedule appearances. Please do not come to the courthouse. All other questions are to be directed to @CSPDPIO
— CO Courts (@CoCourts) November 16, 2023
The courthouse closed for the rest of the day, according to a post from the X account for the Colorado Judicial Department, and McCallum said all personnel, staff and judges were sent home.
Cronin said Colorado Springs police are investigating what happened outside the courthouse, and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is investigating anything that happened inside the courthouse.
This is a developing story.
