A 33-year-old Lakewood Police Department officer was killed Thursday in a shootout on a bus that wounded three additional officers and a bystander and left the suspect — a parolee with a history of violence against law enforcement — dead.
Agent Nicholas Graham, a seven-year member of the police force, was killed when a man opened fire as Graham and other officers boarded a Regional Transportation District bus at a busy metro Denver intersection Thursday evening in an attempt to apprehend the man, who was a suspect in a hit-and-run crash from earlier in the day.
The man shot at the officers as they approached and officers returned fire, killing him, Lakewood police spokesman John Romero said.
Lakewood police and Jefferson County Coroner Annette Cannon declined to name the suspect Friday, but The Denver Post confirmed authorities identified the gunman as Gabriel Steven Garcia, a 34-year-old parolee with a lengthy criminal history in Colorado that included a felony conviction for assaulting a police officer in 2017.
Four officers were shot during the exchange of gunfire near the intersection of Wadsworth Boulevard and West Colfax Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Graham’s wounds were fatal; the other officers suffered serious injuries. Two officers were released from the hospital Friday; a third remained hospitalized but was recovering, Romero said.
The extent of the injuries to the bystander was not clear Friday, Romero said.
Lakewood Police Chief Philip Smith on Friday remembered Graham as a “dependable teammate” who upheld the highest standards of professionalism.
“From his earliest days on patrol to his work investigating major crimes, he distinguished himself through his dedication, his compassion and his willingness to help others,” Smith said during a news conference Friday. He did not take questions.
The incident began at 6:30 p.m. Thursday when a Lakewood police agent spotted a man who matched the description of a driver who had been involved in a hit-and-run crash about three hours earlier near the intersection of W. 13th Avenue and Kipling Street, Romero said. The driver ran away from the earlier crash, but witnesses gave Lakewood police agents a detailed description of the man.
The agent called for backup after spotting the man. Agents then saw the man board a northbound RTD bus at the intersection of West Colfax Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard, Romero said. The agents got on the bus, he said, and the suspect turned and fired at them at 6:32 p.m. The agents shot back, killing the man, Romero said.
The police department refers to its police officers as agents because it was modeled after the FBI when it was founded in 1970 as the Lakewood Department of Public Safety; its employees originally wore suits, not uniforms.
Arianna McKibbin, who was celebrating her 13th birthday Thursday, witnessed the shooting as she and her grandmother were stopped in their vehicle at a red light, Arianna said.
They noticed several police cars around them at the intersection before anything happened, she said. Then the officers suddenly turned on their lights, crossed the intersection and approached the bus, which serviced Route 76.
“We heard gunfire go off,” Arianna said. They waited through two cycles of the traffic light as police vehicles sped by, sirens wailing, before her grandmother was able to safely drive away, Arianna said.
“I’m just scared from it,” she said. “I never witnessed any gunshots before, so it was kind of out of the blue.”
Another witness, Teddy O’Brien, told 9News that several police cruisers surrounded the bus before officers rushed to it with guns and flashlights drawn.
“They hopped on and then shots instantly started ringing from there,” he said. “I instantly just saw shots firing and I ducked down, because you know I’m freaking out at that point.”
O’Brien said he saw only one or two people on the bus besides the driver. He said he heard about 30 or 40 gunshots and saw smoke and flashes of light coming from both the front and back of the bus. A dashcam video recorded by another witness, Shaun Stewart, captured a flurry of gunshots as he drove south on Wadsworth Boulevard.
Garcia, the suspected gunman, was on parole from the Colorado Department of Corrections, according to the department’s online records. The man had been serving a year-long sentence for trespassing and was scheduled to complete his parole in September 2027, according to those records. A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections did not return a request for more information Friday.
Garcia’s criminal history in Colorado dates back more than 15 years, court records show. Between 2010 and 2019, Garcia was convicted of disorderly conduct, obstructing a firefighter, presenting a false ID, theft, forgery, and perjury — all misdemeanors. Garcia was convicted of felony menacing in 2017. That same year, he was charged in Adams County with attempted murder, assaulting and attempting to disarm a police officer. Garcia pleaded guilty in 2019 to assaulting a police officer, a felony, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to court records.
Court records that would further detail the 2017 incident were not immediately available Friday. It was also not immediately clear when Garcia was released from prison after the police assault conviction, but court records show he was arrested in July and October 2025, the latter being the trespassing conviction for which he was on parole Thursday.
After the shooting Thursday night, dozens of police officers gathered outside Denver Health and a bagpiper played “Amazing Grace” in tribute Graham. A long procession of police vehicles then left the hospital. Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement that he was heartbroken by the killing.
“Thank you to law enforcement who run into danger to keep us safe and to protect our communities,” Polis said.
Graham was a field training agent who helped to train new officers, Smith said Friday. The son of a recently retired police sergeant, Graham was known for his compassion and empathy, the chief said. He handled 322 cases on the police department’s major crimes team, which investigates crimes including homicide. That was the heaviest caseload on the team, Smith said.
“His accomplishments tell us what he did,” Smith said. “The gratitude of those he helped tells us how much his service mattered.”
Other law enforcement agencies will cover parts of Lakewood’s jurisdiction in the coming days so Lakewood’s staff and officers can have time to grieve, the police department said.
The Jefferson County Critical Incident Team is investigating police actions in the shooting.
Denver Post staff writer Meg Wingerter and the Associated Press contributed to this report.