Anyone who was home in Capitol Hill or Uptown last night could not mistake the police sirens, searchlights and buzzing helicopters for anything but a manhunt. Blogger Mike Ditto of Janus, who had a police scanner going, and I were live-blogging the action in the comments section. Several times we thought they nabbed him — only to be mistaken. What we learned is that a lot goes on in Denver on a Friday night — even when the NBA is in town. It was an evening out of “New York Minute,” the Don Henley song:

Lying here in the darkness I hear the sirens wail Somebody going to emergency Somebody’s going to jail

There were gunshots, police converging at St. Joseph’s Hospital to interview a walk-in gun shot victim, searches that uncovered a gun in the alley at 1021 E. 17th Ave., shell casings found at 18th and Franklin, a car of “indigenous” people pulled over at I-25 and Park Ave. because their back window had been blown out, and a shed surrounded at 24th and Lafayette where a suspect may have been holed up inside.

Mike’s partner returned home and reported on what he had seen downtown: there was a rollover crash at 16th & Welton where the driver took off running from the cops, and at least one of the passengers was dead at the scene. While on the bus home, someone got on and started harassing the driver; the driver hit the panic button and pushed the guy out. The cops were right there and took him down after he pulled a concealed gun. In the end, suspect Brent J. Brents was captured in Glenwood Springs — 2 1/2 hours away from Capitol Hill. Assuming he in fact is the violent serial rapist, that’s good news.