An after action report on the Denver Nuggets Championship Parade June 15, 2023 details the series of events that led a Denver Fire Department truck to hit a Denver police sergeant, who then had to have his leg amputated. The four-page report, obtained by CBS News Colorado, suggests that Nuggets superstars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray should not have been placed on the last vehicle in the motorcade, that larger barricades were needed to control the crowd and that the barricades were dismantled too quickly.
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The Victory Parade Overhaul Project appears constructive, aiming to ensure that future Denver parades are safer and avoid the problems that led to Denver Police Sgt. Justin Dodge loses his left leg.
Dodge was helping with parade security when the last fire apparatus in the parade, Tower 15, crushed his leg near the end of the route. According to the draft report, “…The crowd along the parade route began to approach the device which was guarded by several Denver police officers, causing the officers to move closer to the platform. Meanwhile, a Denver police officer was struck by the right front tire of Tower 15, which ultimately trapped his leg under the front tire.
The street was so crowded with people when Dodge broke down that, according to the report, “members inside Tower 15 were unable to open their doors to render aid.”
The review was not signed by any member of the fire department. The report then outlines the factors that led to this serious accident and makes recommendations on how to prevent a repeat in the future.
“Consider placing the most popular actors at the beginning or middle of the procession rather than at the end,” reads one of the recommendations. Nuggets star players Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were on the very last fire truck in the parade with the Larry O’Brien championship trophy. The report suggested placing the superstars and the trophy on the last vehicle in the procession, which sparked anticipation and excitement among the crowd of 700,000 fans, many of whom rushed onto the parade route after the parade passed. Jokic and Murray firefighters.
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“The barricades were lifted shortly after the last convoy crossed the route, causing crowds to gather around the rallies at the end of the procession,” notes another recommendation in the report.
“Considering the larger barriers, the companies had problems with fans and players stopping the parade by crowding and running in front of the platforms. Not allowing players to disembark from the platforms before the end of the parade”, suggest the authors of the report.
An additional consideration according to the report was when fire trucks dropped off the players behind the Denver City-County Building at the end of the parade and before the start of a rally. It took a long time to remove players and staff from fire trucks as members of the fire department mingled with players and cleaned debris from their engines, causing a “traffic bottleneck along of Cherokee. Consider closing Cherokee or widening the barrier to all crowds during the parade. events, the turn at 13th and Cherokee creates a choke point, putting responders and parade members in danger.
Although the draft report offers concrete recommendations to prevent another similar incident, the Denver Fire Department is now distancing itself from its own draft report. Denver Fire Capt. JD Chism said Wednesday, “…there is no official after action report from the Denver Fire Department. A draft after action report has been initiated by members of the DFD immediately after the incident, however, the decision was made not to move forward with this draft since multiple public safety agencies were involved…the draft that was started was not approved moving forward and anything contained in this draft report has not gone through the AAR (After Action Review) process nor should it be used to represent the findings of the incident.
Chism referred further questions to the Department of Public Safety.
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That agency said there was a meeting on June 27, 2023, two weeks after the parade, with representatives from the Department of Safety, Denver Police, Denver Fire Department and paramedics from Denver to discuss and identify security improvements for large-scale celebrations. When CBS News Colorado requested documents about that meeting, the request was denied.
“The identified enhancements are not publicly available at this time because they contain sensitive law enforcement details that could compromise the department’s ability to manage public safety situations,” wrote Andrea Webber, administrator of the Ministry of Public Safety files. “We believe these interests outweigh any public purpose that could be served by releasing the documents at this time.”
The Denver Fire Department’s draft review also recommended: “Better coordination with other stakeholder agencies… rehearsing the incident action plan between agencies before larger events ladder…an emergency plan with an evacuation route along the parade route…consider placing a security guard/assistant security guards on the parade route.
The report said the location of the medics on the parade route was “unknown” when the officer was struck.
