The recent spate of officer-involved shootings in metro Denver that placed the metropolis on edge — four in four days — spurred some community activists to action Monday.

At a rally on the west steps of the state Capitol Monday, several groups said they are organizing people across the state in response to the recent uptick in shootings involving police officers.

Meanwhile, criminal justice subject-matter experts weighed in on potential causes, even as little new information about the shootings emerged from Boulder, Denver and Aurora police departments.

"It looked like all of the people who were shot (recently) by police were armed and may have been either actively shooting or threatening" police officers, said Dr. Rachel Lautenschlager, an assistant professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Denver.

Research shows "there is an almost certainty that the police will shoot back" in those circumstances, Lautenschlager said. 

Lautenschlager, who began tracking officer-involved shootings when the first one occurred on Thursday evening in Broomfield, said she looked at the larger picture – in particular, that two law enforcement officers recently died.

Arvada officer Dillon Vakoff, 27, was shot and killed while responding to a child custody dispute last month. A few days later, Weld County Sheriff's Office Deputy Alexis Hein-Nutz, 24, was killed in a hit-and-run crash by a suspected drunk driver while driving to work.

Recent line-of-duty deaths can put officers on edge or in a heightened state, Lautenschlager said.

"Something that sort of gets overlooked is that police are people, so they are going to have the same sorts of responses to violence that the rest of us do, especially if that violence hits close to home," she said.

Some studies also show police can be more likely to use force after a colleague is harmed, said Lautenschlager, who noted Denver's record high homicide rates in 2022. 

Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen earlier said the city's homicides this year are on pace to exceed last year’s total of 96. Between 2010 and 2021 Colorado’s homicides more than tripled, from 101 to 364, according to data compiled by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

"So, on top of the violence that police are experiencing, just the fact that there are so many homicides happening makes everybody, including police, feel less safe," she said.

How law enforcement agencies respond to police shootings is deeply important, she said.

"I think that police agencies need to approach these types of situations with empathy toward the public and how the public is feeling about this," Lautenschlager said. "What we often see from law enforcement agencies is a sort of defensiveness, particularly when they feel that the shooting was justified. But that's not going to get us anywhere in terms of repairing the relationship between police and the public."

There were more media representatives than rally-goers at the Capitol gathering on Monday.

"I know all too well what it's like to be told by a district attorney, 'You are lucky to be alive,'" said Alex Landau, who, as a 19-year old community college student, survived a beating by Denver police. He won a $795,000 settlement from the city — at the time one of the largest payouts ever awarded for police brutality in Denver. 

Landau, now 27 and with the Denver Justice Project, said the police oversight committees in Denver and Aurora are planning to join together to strengthen their messages.

"I feel empathy for police officers as human beings because they are carrying out behaviors that are anti-human and now put in a position to be in that same layer of anti-human treatment," Candice Bailey said, a member of the Aurora Police Oversight Task Force. "If an officer steps out and says this is wrong, they’re blackballed."

Bailey said she knows the job of law enforcement can be thankless, especially since the death of George Floyd, who died in May 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground, but she added it's the fault of a flawed system, which she argued needs to be changed. 

Even as metro Denver face a spike in crime, police departments remain short-staffed.

Aurora Police Agent Matt Longshore said the department has about 50 vacancies, even when Aurora is currently the highest-paying agency in the state. Department officials recently went on a recruiting trip to New York, contacted thousands of officers and got 27 applications out of it. Starting pay in New York is $40,000, while Aurora offers $60,000 for people with no experience. Aurora’s strategy has been to target departments that don’t pay as much and don’t offer the outdoor lifestyle Colorado has, Longshore said.

Law enforcement in general is a dangerous career and officers are required to make split-second decisions, he said.

Here’s the status of the four officer-involved shooting incidents since Thursday:

• The Denver Police Fugitive Unit attempted to arrest a homicide suspect Thursday afternoon. The car chase resulted in the suspect crashing at Midway and Sheridan boulevards. A shootout occurred when the suspect bolted from the car and tried to carjack another.

Officers pronounced the suspect dead at the scene, and the injured officer was taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, where he remains.

"His care and recovery are ongoing," Denver Police spokesman Doug Schepman said.

Police declined to identify the suspect, saying it would come from the coroner after the autopsy. The Adams-Broomfield coroner did not respond to The Denver Gazette's requests for information.

• A second shooting occurred early Saturday, when police from multiple agencies engaged in a high-speed pursuit near Denver International Airport.

Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said at a Saturday news conference that Aurora "officers attempted a force-stop method, which caused the vehicle to lose control and ultimately crash" at the 7400 block of Gun Club Road.

"The driver was armed with a long gun that he threatened the officers with," Thomas said. "Three officers discharged their weapons, striking the individual several times."

The suspect was declared dead at the scene, while an Aurora officer was injured in the crash but is in good condition, according to Thomas.

Police declined to identify the suspect, and the Denver Medical Examiner’s office did not respond to requests for information.

• The third shooting occurred early Sunday in Boulder’s The Hill neighborhood. A disturbance involving guns was reported at 1:27 a.m. to Boulder police, who were already on foot patrol investigating a call in the 1200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. Shots were already fired when officers got to the scene, and they returned fire, authorities said.

A suspect was shot in the arm and hospitalized, while the others fled and remained at large, according to Boulder police.

Despite pledging to release body cam footage Sunday, Boulder police declined a request for the footage Monday, citing the "ongoing investigation." They said no other suspects have been arrested, and none of them were believed to be University of Colorado Boulder students. 

• The fourth shooting, which occurred on an RTD bus late on Sunday, injured a person, the Aurora police said.

The shooting closed all lanes of Colfax Avenue between Macon and Oswego streets, the police said. "Shots have been fired by the police, one person has been transported to the hospital," Aurora police said on the department's Twitter page.

Aurora Police provided no new updates Monday, but said the 17th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team is looking into this incident.