Who Owns Security at a Championship Celebration? The Denver Nuggets Shooting

By Chris Grollnek, Active Shooter Expert · Active Shooter Prevention Project, LLC (ASPP™)

On a night that should have been filled with jubilation and triumph, the city of Denver experienced a horrifying and tragic event that cast a dark shadow over the celebrations. The Denver Nuggets had just secured their first-ever NBA Championship by defeating the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. However, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, a mass shooting occurred in the vicinity where fans were joyously reveling in the team’s victory. This act of violence left nine people injured, with three in critical condition. The details surrounding the incident are still under investigation, as police spokesperson Doug Schepman explained. The altercation that led to the shots being fired took place in the area where the largest gathering of celebratory fans had congregated. It is a stark reminder that even in moments of collective joy, tragedy can strike unexpectedly, disrupting the fabric of our communities. The news of this senseless act quickly spread across social media, sparking outrage and sorrow among people worldwide. Chris Grollnek shared this, “These tragedies all reinforces the urgent need for early warning systems and advanced technology. By combining the power of artificial intelligence (A/I) technology and gunshot detection systems, we can cut response times and potentially prevent these shootings. The importance of utilizing available technology, which is both cost-effective and does not compromise individual privacy or track human behavior cannot be emphasized enough. The gravity of this tragedy serves as a stark reminder that these incidents must come to an end. Lives are forever altered, families are shattered, and communities are left grappling with pain and loss. We must collectively work toward implementing complete solutions that address the root causes of such violence and prioritize the safety and well-being of all individuals. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this horrific event, their families, and all those affected by this senseless act of violence. May we find solace in coming together as a community, supporting one another, and striving for a future where celebrations can be cherished without the looming fear of tragedy. We cannot let despair consume us; instead, let us channel our grief into action, demanding change, and advocating for the implementation of effective preventive measures. Together, we can create a world where everyone can enjoy moments of celebration and triumph without the constant threat of violence.”

Who owns security at a Denver Nuggets celebration?

Inside the arena that night, every question had an answer. There was a named security director, a staffing count, screening at every door, a medical plan, a radio channel and a contract that said who was responsible for what. Outside on the street there was a crowd of tens of thousands and no document at all.

The arena’s authority stops at its property line. The city has patrol officers. The bars have door staff who are responsible for their own doorways. None of those parties owns the gathering itself, and the gathering is where the people are.

That is the whole problem in one sentence. Large venue prevention work assumes a venue. A championship street celebration is a mass gathering that never became a venue.

Why do spontaneous crowds fall outside every plan?

Because a plan begins with a permit. A permit creates an applicant, and an applicant creates a paper trail: site diagram, staffing ratio, medical posts, an emergency contact who answers a phone at three in the morning. Every layer of protection a planned event enjoys hangs off that first application.

Nobody applied for this one. It formed in roughly the time it took people to reach downtown after the final buzzer, it peaked in the hours when staffing is thinnest, and it was gone by daylight. There was no gate to screen at, no wristband to check and no perimeter to hold, because the street is the perimeter and the street belongs to everyone.

What that removes, and what it leaves

It removes screening, credentialing, capacity control and controlled egress. What it leaves is the part that was always doing the heavier work anyway: the weeks before, and the people who were already going to be standing there. That is where response training becomes a partner rather than a plan.

What does the FBI say about the weeks before an attack?

In its report on pre-attack behaviors of active shooters in the United States between 2000 and 2013, the FBI found that each attacker displayed roughly four to five observable concerning behaviors before the day. The observers were classmates, coworkers, teachers and family. Police were rarely the first to see anything, which means the intervention point sat with people who had no idea they were holding it.

Between 2000 and 2024 the FBI recorded 528 active shooter incidents in the United States. The settings vary wildly. The weeks before them do not.

For an unticketed crowd, that finding stops being academic and becomes the only workable lever. You cannot screen a public street, but you can build a behavioral threat assessment program in the workplaces, campuses and agencies that crowd came from.

How does prevention reach a Denver Nuggets celebration?

By treating the unplanned gathering as foreseeable, because it is. A city knows weeks ahead that a championship is possible, and that window is long enough to do real work.

Name an owner before the game: one agency accountable for the street celebration, with command established before the final buzzer instead of after the first call.

Train the people who will already be there: bar staff, transit operators, street vendors and rideshare drivers, briefed on what to watch for and exactly who to call.

Staff a reporting line for the night: answered by a person with authority to move resources, published on the city feed and on every screen in the arena.

That sequence is the P.R.O. Model™: Prevention, Response, Options, in that order. The U.S. Department of Justice selected it as “A” national standard for 2022–2025 and again for 2026–2030, and it is in use at some installations and commands across the Department of Defense afterward. The work of an active shooter expert lives in the days before a crowd forms, because once it has formed the only tools left are response tools.

A city cannot permit a celebration into existence. It can decide, in advance, who is responsible when one happens anyway.

Sources
Federal Bureau of Investigation. A Study of the Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States Between 2000 and 2013. 2018.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Active shooter incident reports, 2000 through 2024.
U.S. Department of Justice, P.R.O. Model™ selection, 2022–2025 and 2026–2030.
Denver Police Department, public statements, June 2023.

#NEVERHERE™ #StopTheViolence #CommunityStrong

Related reading: a ticketed music festival shows the same gap in a planned event, where screening ended at the gate and the campground went unscreened.