‘Active Shooter’ Incident Ends with Police Killing Armed Man, Taking Woman into Custody at ‘Packed’ Family Center in Colorado

Police killed an armed man and took a woman into custody following an “active shooter” situation at a “packed” Colorado entertainment center that left two people hospitalized with injuries.

The shooting occurred at Main Event in Highlands Ranch at 11:51 p.m. local time on Saturday, Feb. 8, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) said in a press release shared on Facebook.

After the DCSO received a call reporting an “active shooter” at the establishment — a center that advertises “family-friendly fun” such as arcade games, bowling and eating — a deputy was able to respond to the scene in “less than a minute,” Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said in a press conference after the shooting.

Upon arrival, the deputy “encountered a male in the parking lot armed with a gun,” the DCSO said. After failing to comply with “several commands” to drop the weapon, “the male then turned toward the deputy, at which point the deputy fired his weapon and hit the male.”

Officers on the scene “attempted life-saving measures,” but the male was “pronounced deceased shortly thereafter,” the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies then located a female victim who had been shot in the chest and suffered a foot wound inside Main Event, where they later learned that a shooting had occurred “involving two females,” Weekly said. The female victim was hospitalized, along with another person, who suffered a non-life-threatening medical issue, according to police.

Following the DCSO’s initial investigation, the female who shot the wounded woman was identified as the shooter, and is now in police custody, Weekly said. The armed male has not yet been identified by police, nor has the woman believed to be the shooter.

It is not yet clear whether the armed male killed outside was directly linked with the shooting inside the establishment, the sheriff said, telling reporters, “That’s still under investigation at this point, but we do believe that there was a connection there.”

The DCSO did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Sunday, Feb. 9.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Weekly also said in the press conference that “multiple rounds” were fired inside the business, which was “packed” with customers at the time of the shooting.

“There were a lot of patrons still here when the shots rang out,” he said, calling it both a “very dangerous situation” and one that could have been “much worse.”

“Obviously, you have a large entertainment center like Main Event here, you have shots being fired inside,” Weekly said. “Fortunately, we had a deputy sheriff who was close by, and unfortunately he had to take a life, but a very dangerous, chaotic scene and we still have a lot to work through, but this could have been a lot worse.”