Police in Denver are searching Thursday for a female shooter who they say injured five bystanders after opening fire outside the Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row bar and restaurant, reports say.
Investigators told KDVR that the gunfire erupted late Saturday night in the Lower Downtown neighborhood after the suspect, who was in line to get into the country music star’s establishment, was stopped by security who believed she may have not been using her own ID.
The station reports that the woman allegedly left before returning to speak with security and then opened fire.
“There seemed to be some sort of confrontation or a fight over that verbal altercation, at which she produced a handgun that was concealed on her person and started shooting,” Armando Saldate, executive director of Denver Public Safety, told KDVR.
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Police said the suspect “may have been shooting towards the security personnel,” the station reported, adding that the five people who were struck are expected to survive.
The Denver Police Department on Monday released images of a woman wielding a firearm.
“Five victims were standing outside of the bar when they were shot by an unidentified female,” the department said.
Madison Sharnowski, whom Denver7 says was a witness, described the shooting as happening “really fast.”
“Obviously there were the gunshots. There was quite a few, I’d say maybe seven or eight of them. In that moment, it’s like flight or fight response,” Sharnowski said. “When I first ran, I was kind of like, check yourself, did — did I get hit? Check your people — did any of them get hit?”
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“There was a girl that was two or three people in front of us and she had been hit. I know that there was also a girl that was just a couple of people behind us that had been hit,” Sharnowski added.
“You really don’t know how you’re gonna respond until it happens. And hopefully it’s not something that you ever really have to respond to,” she also told Denver7. “Not only is it traumatic to me, but for the victims as well. And I know that the suspect is still out there somewhere. And I feel like if anything, finding her will bring some sort of comfort to everybody that had to go through this.”
In a statement to KDVR, a spokesperson for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row said “We are very concerned about the ongoing criminal activity in LoDo and have been engaged with city officials and neighborhood leaders on how to make positive improvements in the area.”
Police are offering a reward of $2,000 for information leading to an arrest.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Denver Police Department for further comment.
