DENVER — A man was fatally shot Thursday just yards off Denver’s popular 16th Street Mall, closing two blocks of Welton Street for two hours in the middle of a busy workday afternoon.

The unidentified man was pronounced dead at Denver Health Medical Center after suffering multiple gunshot wounds in a restaurant after an apparent altercation involving three or four people, police said.

Denver police spokeswoman Loretta Beauvais said the shooting occurred at 3:37 p.m. at Chopsticks & Sushi, a Japanese-Chinese restaurant at 1630 Welton St.

After Thursday’s shooting, police closed Welton Street to traffic between 15th and 17th streets until about 5:45 p.m. Dozens of bystanders crowded against yellow police tape to survey the scene.

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