Campus Alert Archive
CU Anschutz

CU Anschutz Locks Down While Police Hunt Armed Suspect Near Hospitals -- and an Officer Accidentally Fires

COarmed personemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

Shortly before 9:30 AM MDT on July 10, 2018, Aurora police searched for a man believed to be armed near the intersection of North Ursula Street and East 22nd Avenue, placing all buildings on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus on lockdown as a precaution. A CU Alert all-clear was issued within less than an hour after a suspect was taken into custody near a parking structure and a gun recovered. During the search, an Aurora police officer unintentionally discharged a weapon; no one was struck.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Public R1 · CO
CU Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction250 chars
CU ANSCHUTZ POSSIBLE ARMED PARTY - SHELTER IN PLACE. Officers are in the area of E 22nd and N Ursula St searching for a male possibly armed with a gun. @CUAnschutz and area hospitals are on lockdown as precaution. Residents asked to shelter in place.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The CU Alert system used an all-caps subject heading followed by a brief situational description; the shelter-in-place applied to the entire CU Anschutz Medical Campus and area hospitals as a precautionary perimeter measure.
The alert referenced both CU Anschutz buildings and 'area hospitals' -- reflecting the campus's integration with University of Colorado Hospital, Children's Hospital Colorado, and other facilities on the same medical campus footprint.
ALL CLEARSMS
Verified verbatimCU DEN|AMC Police (@CUDen_AMC_PD) official Twitter/X post on July 10, 2018; text confirmed from CBS Colorado coverage quoting the tweet verbatim125 chars
CU ANSCHUTZ POSSIBLE ARMED PARTY ALL CLEAR, NO LONGER NEED TO SHELTER IN PLACE/FOR COMPLETE INFO CALL 877-463-6070/FROM CU PD
Verbatim text confirmed from @CUDen_AMC_PD official Twitter account as quoted in CBS Colorado coverage; the slash-separated format is characteristic of CU's automated alert tweet system, which appended a phone number and sender tag.
The all-clear was issued after a suspect was taken into custody near a parking structure and a gun was recovered; police confirmed the incident was not an active shooter situation.
Separately, after the suspect was in custody, an Aurora Police officer at the scene unintentionally discharged a weapon; no one was hit, underscoring the danger of accidental discharge during high-tension armed-person searches.
Context

Background

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora is one of the nation's largest academic medical campuses, integrating the CU School of Medicine, CU College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, Children's Hospital Colorado, and University of Colorado Hospital within a dense footprint west of Interstate 225. On the morning of July 10, 2018, Aurora Police Department officers were searching for a man they believed to be armed near the intersection of North Ursula Street and East 22nd Avenue, adjacent to the campus. 9News reported that all campus buildings went on lockdown as a precaution, and area residents were asked to shelter in place. A CU Alert was sent out to the campus community. The suspect was subsequently taken into custody near a parking structure, and a gun was recovered. Following the apprehension, an Aurora police officer accidentally fired a weapon; CBS Colorado reported that no one was struck. The all-clear stated the campus no longer needed to shelter in place. Police confirmed the incident was not an active shooter situation. The incident illustrates how an armed-person search in streets adjacent to a medical campus routinely triggers a full campus lockdown affecting thousands of medical students, residents, nurses, pharmacists, and hospital employees.
Analysis

Key Findings

An armed-person search by Aurora Police on adjacent streets caused a full shelter-in-place lockdown across the entire CU Anschutz Medical Campus, illustrating the perimeter-spillover vulnerability of large urban medical campuses
The accidental officer discharge during the suspect search -- after the suspect was already in custody -- is a documented safety risk in high-tension armed-person sweeps
The lockdown affected multiple co-located institutions including University of Colorado Hospital and Children's Hospital Colorado in addition to academic campus buildings
CU Alert sent an all-caps, high-brevity SMS message identifying the threat type and location, consistent with mass-notification best practices for brief actionable text
Outcome
A suspect was taken into custody near a parking structure; a gun was recovered. An Aurora police officer unintentionally fired a weapon during the search but no one was struck. Police confirmed this was not an active-shooter incident. No injuries. All-clear issued within approximately one hour.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    APD: Officer unintentionally fires weapon while searching for suspect near CU Anschutz
    9news.com
  2. News
    All Clear: CU Anschutz Hospital Campus Lockdown, Search For Man Possibly Armed With Gun
    cbsnews.com
Tags
armed-personlockdownhospitalacademic-health-centercoloradoauroramedical-campuscu-alertaccidental-dischargeemergency-notification
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion