Two people were killed after a shooting and car chase through south Denver on Sunday, according to the Denver Police Department.

Officers responded to a shooting near West Arkansas Avenue and South Knox Court in Denver’s Mar Lee neighborhood Sunday afternoon, Denver police said in a post on X.

The shooting victim, a man, was pronounced dead.

Police saw a man suspected in the shooting driving away from the scene and followed him to the area of South University Boulevard and Cherry Hills Farm Drive in the Cherry Hills neighborhood.

The man crashed twice, hitting one vehicle, and was found dead in his vehicle as a result of suicide, police officials said.

Three people who were in the vehicle the man crashed into were not injured.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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Originally Published: August 18, 2024 at 1:09 p.m.

It’s Friday, Aug. 2, and I’m writing this article with CNBC open on my browser. The headline shouts, “Dow Loses 750 Points, Nasdaq Enters Correction After Weak Jobs Report.” The week was rough, with markets retracting from what felt like a month of steady new highs. A scant few weeks ago, investors were piling cash into highly valued tech stocks. Now they can’t seem to exit fast enough. Fear and greed pervade.

For frequent readers of this column, a correction should come as no surprise. They happen every 12 to 18 months as a “normal” part of financial markets reacting to economic and market growth. Corporate earnings, the most recent jobs report, and the wait-and-see Federal Reserve seem to be contributing factors, but focusing on these each month is akin to analyzing the bugs on your windshield: watch too closely, and you’re likely to crash. For long-term investors, “corrections” (I still dislike that word) are a mere hiccup on the path to a bigger future.

But news broadcasters, of course, have a different perspective. The week’s headlines touted “Investor Recession Fears,” “Sharpest Weekly Losses.” In the next breath we read “Earnings Flurry Boosts Indexes,” and “Dow Closes Higher Buoyed by Bullish Inflation Report.” Bull or bear, it’s been a dramatic couple of weeks. As Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

The news is inherently reactive. Anchors have the unenviable task of filling 24 hours of on-air time daily, so besides reporting on the event, they also feel the need to attempt to explain why it happened (or add some drama). Sometimes this is straightforward; other times — especially around financial markets — it’s downright impossible.

Daily market movements are random. Period. For fun, start each day by guessing whether your favorite index is going to finish the day up or down. Write down your guess. Do it for a month, and see how many days you get it right. The reality is that daily market movements are affected by so many variables that choosing up, down, or flat follows the same probability as a coin flip. What’s comical is financial media’s need to explain why the coin landed heads up.

Remember: volatility drives the narrative; the narrative does not drive volatility. When markets go down, “professionals” attempt to explain why. Maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong, but we can never measure their accuracy. So why do we listen to them?

As humans, we want answers. Cause and effect. The market went down 800 points; why? Markets are hugely amorphous, so we turn to “professionals” to explain the details. They give us a “reason,” and we wonder how we could be so silly to have missed the signs.

Taking a step back shows us how crazy it is to believe one person could flawlessly understand why markets moved on any given day. This is akin to someone explaining that the coin landed heads up because the wind blew. It’s insanity, yet we expect it, accept it, and worse yet, get on board with it. Human behavior craves certainty and stability, yet these are mere mental mirages crafted by those seeking to keep our attention.

This leads to an even bigger problem: predictions. Given an audience, reporters may feel empowered to start guessing the outcome of the coin flip before it even starts. Viewers might like to understand why something happened, but if they could know the outcome ahead of time? Well, that’s the promised land. And the media loves to give the viewer what they want, even if it’s completely wrong.

This is nothing new. In the mid-1980s, as a fresh-faced adviser working for a large firm, I once picked up a renowned economist from Stapleton Airport. My job was to drive him to Breckenridge for a research conference where he’d present his future predictions. At the time, interest rates were climbing, inflation was high, and he believed emphatically that mortgage rates were going to keep rising and never come back down.

That guess was wrong. Very wrong. Later in his career, he said Y2K was going to cause a worldwide recession, comparing it to the energy crisis of the early 1970s. Wrong again. Today he (naturally) owns a huge market research firm. As our compliance department says, “Past performance is not indicative of future success.”

Though we may wish for accurate forecasting, the truth is we have no facts about the future. We don’t know what will happen or how markets will react. Humans tend to make decisions with emotion instead of common sense, and we ignore mistakes and the wisdom they bring. That’s why human nature is a poor investor.

Choosing to do the right thing — the hard thing — takes effort and discipline. It also takes a perspective that feels unnatural but makes sense when taken at face value. Invest for the long term. Remove the guesswork, and ignore those who try to convince you they have an edge. Fall back on humility as a key character trait, recognizing that your knowledge and assumptions have limits. Above all, ask why. Not why something happened; in markets that answer isn’t knowable. Instead ask why someone is trying to explain the unexplainable. You’ll find far more insight.

Steve Booren is the founder of Prosperion Financial Advisors in Greenwood Village. He is the author of “Blind Spots: The Mental Mistakes Investors Make” and “Intelligent Investing: Your Guide to a Growing Retirement Income.” He was named by Forbes as a 2021 Best-in-State Wealth Advisor, and a Barron’s 2021 Top Advisor by State. This column is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations.

The Denver Broncos entered 2024 riddled with questions. Most eyeballs will rightfully be on rookie quarterback Bo Nix.

Will he wind up being the quality of quarterback that gives Denver its first long-term option at the position since Peyton Manning and someone who can give the team a fighting chance against the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert going forward?

Early indications are that Broncos head coach Sean Payton might have found an ideal fit for his offense as Nix has impressed in preseason and training camp overall. If Nix is the guy, though, the Broncos will likely need to improve upon their passing weapons to maximize the young quarterback on his rookie contract.

Wide receiver, specifically, is a question for the Broncos this season. With Courtland Sutton back following a restructured contract, the rest of the receiver room is replete with unknowns.

Given the lack of sizzle at the position, the 33rd Team’s Ian Valentino ranked Denvers’ wide receiver room as the 22nd-best group in the NFL entering 2024.

“In theory, the Denver Broncos have a receiving corps worth this ranking. Courtland Sutton is more of a quality No. 2 receiver than a star, and Tim Patrick was a good player before missing the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

“Josh Reynolds was a valuable piece in Detroit and will play a role in Denver. Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims were good and productive in college, but one or both need to make an impact right away for Denver to justify being over teams with a better No. 1 option,” Valentino wrote.

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With Sutton having been plagued with subpar quarterback play, a variety of different schemes with a revolving door of coaching regimes, and having to come back from a significant knee injury, it’s unfair to box him as purely a quality No. 2 receiver. He was on the receiving end of many of last year’s improbable Russell Wilson completions, hauling in a whopping 10 touchdowns.

At this point in his career, perhaps Sutton is best served as an X and a high-end No. 2, but with better (and more consistent) quarterback play and a renowned offensive play-caller in Payton, there could be some WR1 upside there — even if Sutton does not become a superstar playmaker.

After Sutton, though, who else steps up and emerges remains to be seen. Patrick was a really promising find by the Broncos when he was handed a new contract in the 2021 season.

However, after suffering season-ending injuries in back-to-back training camps, forgive Broncos Country for being a bit guarded before believing in a healthy over-30 Patrick emerging as a big-time contributor for the team.

It’s Mims whom the Broncos need to take a large step up this season. The 2023 second-rounder is coming off of a Pro Bowl/All-Pro season as a special teams returner, but it will be his ability as a receiver that will determine most of his value and worth, as Denver traded up to acquire him, after all.

While Mims caught a touchdown pass in preseason Game 1 against the Indianapolis Colts and got an early rep with the ones, he was relegated to the second team earning snaps behind Sutton, Patrick, and Reynolds.

Can Mims emerge as a top-three receiver and an explosive play threat the Broncos desperately need on paper? Time will tell.

Reynolds appears to have been a savvy signing by the Broncos. He’s solid, versatile, big, and physical. He may have mistimed a possible touchdown from Nix against the Colts, but he provides an excellent floor as a player with many unknowns.

However, a glance at Reynolds’ contract, in comparison to the current eye-popping wide receiver market, should cap expectations that he’ll be a massive difference-making playmaker. Signing for a two-year, $9 million contract, his $4.5-million-per-year deal ranks 51st amongst wide receivers in the NFL. It’s a contract and market that would indicate he’s a useful player but not someone likely to be the type of dynamic playmaker teams covet.

After those four, it really could be anyone to earn the last roster spot or two. While Franklin was coveted enough by Denver to move up for early Day 3, he has been reportedly up and down leading up to the start of the season.

Apparently, the other receiver from Denver’s draft class — Devaughn Vele — has been more of a standout so far. Perhaps David Sills, Jalen Virgil, Brandon Johnson, or Lil’Jordan Humphrey will take one of the last spots. Special teams will play a big role in the last receivers to make the 53-man roster.

Overall, the Broncos’ wide receiver room has options and names, but after Sutton, who emerges and what quality of play they provide remains to be seen. Luckily for Denver, Payton hasn’t traditionally needed a plethora of weapons to scheme players open and field a plus-offense.

With Payton’s play calling, a smart and accurate quarterback, and an offensive line that can dictate on the ground and keep the quarterback upright, Denver might not need a star-studded cast of pass-catchers. Still, the room doesn’t look outstanding on paper and is a position to monitor going forward this season.

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