DENVER — A person barricaded inside a home near the University of Denver campus Saturday night prompted an accidental city-wide shelter-in-place alert, law enforcement said.
The incident was unfolding at a home located at 2495 South Vine Street in Denver, just to the south of DU. A shelter-in-place alert intended for a two-block radius around that home was actually sent to residents across a large area, the Denver Public Safety Department wrote on social media.
Police told Denver7 that the inadvertent alert was due to a mixup of some sort at the city’s emergency communications department.
The situation prompted a flurry of alerts by DU. The university had sent a campus shelter-in-place alert just after 8 p.m. before issuing one saying there was “no active threat” about 10 minutes later. Another shelter-in-place alert was then sent before a campus all-clear was given at 8:45 p.m. as the incident at the home on Vine Street was still ongoing.
Police announced the barricaded person had been taken into custody around 1:30 a.m. and the shelter-in-place was lifted.
A wireless emergency alert (WEA) was sent to a broader area than intended for an incident at 2495 S. Vine Street. The shelter-in-place alert applies only to a two-block radius around that address and recipients outside that area should disregard the alert.
— Denver Public Safety Department (@DenSafetyDept) January 18, 2026
The circumstances leading up to the person barricading themselves in the residence were not immediately made clear.
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