Two Colorado State Patrol troopers were hospitalized, and a suspect is dead after a shooting during a traffic stop Tuesday.

The initial incident happened at about 7:15 a.m., when a resident reported suspicious activity in the area near milepost 286 on the west edge of Woodland Park. A responding trooper attempted to make a traffic stop, and the suspect opened fire, hitting the trooper.

“The trooper had no opportunity to respond at that moment,” said Matthew Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol. “He was able to inform dispatch that he had been shot and that the suspect was fleeing.”

In an audio recording of the troopers’ distress call to dispatch, an officer can be heard detailing his injuries as well as a description of the suspect and his vehicle.

“I been shot in the neck,” the trooper said as he was reportedly walking into a nearby emergency room. “I been shot in the shoulder, the ribs.”

The Teller County Sheriff’s Office issued a shelter-in-place order for the Westwood Lakes subdivision off U.S. 24 near Woodland Park.

A second trooper responded to the distress call and was also shot when he encountered the suspect. That trooper returned fire, hitting the suspect, officials said.

For several hours Tuesday morning, some 30 law enforcement vehicles from the Teller County Sheriff’s Office; Colorado State Patrol; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and El Paso County Sheriff’s Office along with unmarked cars were on the scene near West Highway 24 and Piney Point Lane, the entrance to the Westwood Lakes subdivision.

Dozens of law enforcement officers from several agencies locked down the area and began searching for the suspect, including Teller County Sheriff’s Office; Colorado State Patrol; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

At 9:24 a.m., law enforcement received a tip that the suspect’s vehicle might be in the community, said Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell.

When deputies found the vehicle and began to approach, the suspect began firing, Mikesell said. The deputies returned fire, striking the suspect several times.

Personnel at the scene rendered aid to the suspect before a helicopter flew him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at noon, officials said.

Just before 10 a.m., the Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced that the suspect had been located and was in custody. The shelter-in-place order was lifted shortly after the announcement.

Several law enforcement vehicles, including from the Colorado State Patrol, were observed by a Gazette reporter at UCHealth Memorial Central Hospital in Colorado Springs, but there was no official word on the reason for their presence.

Packard declined to disclose where the injured officers were hospitalized but said both are expected to recover.

“If you shoot a Colorado State Trooper, the world is coming for you,” Packard said. “That’s what happened today.”

“I was devastated to learn about the shooting that injured two Colorado State Patrol Troopers during a traffic stop in Teller County,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.

“As both troopers receive medical care for their injuries, I and the entire state of Colorado are keeping both of them and their families in our thoughts and prayers and wishing them a speedy and full recovery. I am grateful to the swift coordination of law enforcement to successfully apprehend the suspect.”

Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said both shootings — the wounding of the troopers and the deadly officer-involved shooting — will be investigated.

“It is important that we have a fair and thorough investigation,” Allen said.

The last CSP trooper to be shot in the line of duty was Tye Simcox, who was hit in the arm in a shootout with a suspect on U.S. 36 in September 2024, State Patrol officials said. The suspect was killed in the exchange of gunfire in Adams County, in the north metro Denver area.