Shots rang out when a confrontation between biker gangs erupted Saturday at a motorcycle show in Denver, leaving one person dead and several others injured, the police said.
Denver Police Chief Robert White told reporters that the melee, involving firearms, knives and fists, broke out around 1 p.m. at the Colorado Motorcycle Expo at the National Western Complex.
The fight pitted members of "possibly two motorcycle clubs" against each other, he said. Four people were shot, one fatally, in what White called "an exchange of gunfire" involving multiple shooters.
Another person was stabbed, and three more suffered "lesser injuries" from what was "more than likely" a fistfight, he said.
The victims were taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where a large number of police officers were stationed Saturday night to "make sure the incident didn't spread from the complex to the hospital," White said. The medical campus was placed on temporary lockdown earlier in the evening as a precaution.
The motorcycle expo continued for hours after the violence, he said, as officers arrived at the scene and began investigating. But the second day of the weekend-long event was canceled.
White said there would be a heavy police presence at the complex Sunday as another event, an indoor dirt bike racing competition, continued as planned.
"We are absolutely prepared in case the situation escalates," he said.
The police declined to identify the motorcycle clubs involved because the investigation was ongoing, but White said that investigators were interviewing several people Saturday night.
The police were investigating news reports that off-duty officers from some branch of law enforcement may have participated in the fight, White said, although he insisted that no officers from Denver were involved.
"We have not verified absolutely that law enforcement was part of one of those clubs," he said. "There were no Denver police officers involved in the incident, off duty."
The medical examiner by Saturday evening had not released the name of the person who was killed.
Bob Cook, a witness who spoke to The Denver Post, said he heard two gunshots and saw people duck for cover.
There were pools of blood on the floor after the shooting, he told The Post, but soon they dried and expogoers walked over them as if nothing had happened.
"Everyone is so desensitized," he said.