Voodoo Doughnut Suspends Eating Contest After Denver Man Dies

Voodoo Doughnuts, the Portland, OR-based doughnut shop that is a favorite of hipsters everywhere, has suspended it's doughnut eating contest after a man choked to death Sunday morning at their Denver location.

Paramedics responded to the Voodoo Doughnuts on East Colfax Avenue around 2 a.m. Sunday morning where they found 42-year-old Travis Malouf struggling for breath. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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The medical examiner determined he died from asphyxia resulting from an obstruction to his airway.

Witnesses told 9News, which first reported the incident, that he Malouf had been doing the shop's Tex-Ass Doughnut challenge where you have 80 seconds to eat a half-pound doughnut.

It's a doughnut with a seven-inch diameter and the equivalent to about six doughnuts.

Voodoo, which has four Oregon locations - three in Portland and one in Eugene - has also shops in Denver, Austin, and Taipei.

The Denver shop opened in 2013.

Photo of Voodoo's Denver location via Voodoo.