He then fled to the nearby city of Lakewood, Chief Pazen said.

Just before 6 p.m., the Lakewood Police Department received a report of shots fired at a business, John Romero, a spokesman for that department, told reporters. The victim there, Danny Schofield, was later found and pronounced dead at the scene, Mr. Romero said.

By that point, officers had identified Mr. McLeod’s vehicle as a black early 2000s Ford van, Mr. Romero said. When the officers found the van, the gunman opened fire, and officers shot back, Mr. Romero said. The gunman then fled on foot to a Hyatt hotel, where he shot a clerk, later identified as Sarah Steck, 28, who died on Tuesday, the police said.

Mr. McLeod then ran out of the hotel and later encountered a Lakewood police officer, Mr. Romero said. Mr. McLeod shot her in the abdomen, and she returned fire, killing him, Mr. Romero said.

Two weapons were recovered at the scene, and the officer is in stable condition, Mr. Romero said Tuesday afternoon.

Alfredo Cardenas, the father of Ms. Cardenas, said she owned the Sol Tribe Tattoo & Piercing shop and had worked in the body modification industry since 1994, according to a biography of her on the shop’s website.

“She was a real well-known person in the Denver tattoo community,” Mr. Cardenas said in a brief telephone interview.

A number of mass shootings have taken place in Colorado since two students at Columbine High School shocked the nation in 1999 by killing a teacher and 12 classmates. In March, a gunman killed 10 people at a Boulder grocery store, including a police officer. About two months later, a gunman opened fire at a birthday party in Colorado Springs, killing six people before taking his own life. And last month, six teenagers were wounded in a drive-by shooting at a park in the Denver suburb of Aurora.