A police officer suffered a limb-threatening injury when a fire truck ran over his leg during the Denver Nuggets’ NBA Championship parade, according to Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas.
Sergeant Justin Dodge was injured trying to prevent parade-goers from being run over by the fire truck, which was carrying Nuggets players, Thomas said in a press briefing posted to Twitter. “He was sort of trying to protect those individuals from the fire truck, had to step kind of closer to the vehicle and the fire truck began to roll up the back of his left leg trapping him underneath the vehicle,” Thomas said.
Dodge is in stable condition after undergoing surgery but his injury is still considered “limb-threatening,” said Dr. Stephen Wolf, director of emergency medicine at Denver Health. “We can’t say necessarily what the outcome will be, but I can guarantee you our orthopedic services will do everything possible to preserve the leg,” Wolf said.
Chief Thomas heralded Dodge’s actions, saying they likely “did prevent the likelihood of someone being injured.”
Two individuals were shot in the downtown area an hour after the fire truck incident, Thomas revealed. The shooting is believed to be a targeted event and unrelated to the parade, he said. Thomas told press that “unfortunately we have, again, far too many guns in our society,” but also admitted that “the majority of [guns] are illegally possessed.” (RELATED: Gunfire Interrupts Celebration For Denver Nuggets NBA Title Win Leaving 9 Wounded)
The parade, which attracted between 700,000 and one million people according to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, celebrated the Denver Nuggets’ first NBA Championship.
The Picklebet on tour Drone, captured the epic scenes from the Denver nuggets inaugural NBA championship parade pic.twitter.com/MxTg1ZaWQR
— Picklebet (@picklebet) June 15, 2023