Aurora Police Department – The Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com Colorado breaking news, sports, business, weather, entertainment. Mon, 09 Sep 2024 19:09:51 +0000 en-US hourly 30 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cropped-DP_bug_denverpost.jpg?w=32 Aurora Police Department – The Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com 32 32 111738712 Missing teen with Down syndrome found safe in Aurora https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/09/missing-teen-down-syndrom-aurora-tupac/ Mon, 09 Sep 2024 12:45:59 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6608355 A 15-year-old with Down syndrome was found safe Monday afternoon after being reported missing Sunday evening.

The teen left his home near East Sixth Avenue and Laredo Street at about 6:50 p.m. Sunday. He was reported found at about 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Passersby found him in a drainage tunnel. Aurora police and the fire department freed him and he was taken to a hospital for evaluation, according to a social media post from the police.

“This was truly a team effort and we appreciate everyone who played a vital role in safely locating (the child),” the Aurora police department posted.

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6608355 2024-09-09T06:45:59+00:00 2024-09-09T13:09:51+00:00
Aurora police link 10 people to Venezuelan gang amid furor — with 6 now in custody https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/04/venezuelan-gang-colorado-aurora-tren-de-aragua/ Thu, 05 Sep 2024 00:35:24 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6603392 Aurora police on Wednesday offered the first details regarding the scale of a Venezuelan gang’s presence in the city amid an ongoing social-media-led furor about the issue.

Police have identified 10 people linked to the Tren de Aragua gang who are operating in Aurora, and six of those people have been arrested and are in custody, Aurora police spokesman Joe Moylan told The Denver Post.

Details on the identities of the 10 people and the nature of the charges against all of the six arrestees were not immediately available, though some are in custody in connection with a previously reported shooting on Nome Street in July.

Moylan said officers have not arrested any gang members on charges related to collecting rent from residents at three Aurora properties owned by CBZ Property Management.

The properties took center stage in the conversation about the Venezuelan gang in Aurora when CBZ Property Management claimed unlivable conditions at its properties were due to criminal activity by Tren de Aragua gang members.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and other city officials repeated the company’s claim, suggesting the apartment complexes “fallen to” the gang. The claim was then amplified by local and national media and fueled by a viral video showing men with guns knocking on a door in the apartment complex.

Other Aurora officials — and the properties’ residents — have said the unlivable conditions at the company’s properties were longstanding and the result of the company’s mismanagement, rather than an overwhelming gang presence. Aurora’s interim police chief on Friday said gangs had not “taken over” one of the complexes.

Aurora has a population of about 400,000, and a study of its gangs last year identified 36 separate gangs with 1,355 members, about .34% of the city’s total population.

The 10 identified people linked to Tren de Aragua represent less than 1% of Aurora’s identified gang members, though Moylan said officers expect the number of documented Tren de Aragua members to grow as investigations into the gang continue.

“Every day we learn more about TdA, how it operates and how we can identify suspected members,” he said. “…It’s still too soon to try to quantify TdA’s presence in Aurora one way or the other.”

Aurora police have “investigated numerous claims and allegations” about gang members collecting rent from residents at the properties, but “have not yet established probable cause or made any arrests,” Moylan said.

Moylan declined to comment on how many criminal acts connected to Tren de Aragua members are currently under investigation, citing the ongoing investigative work. He said the police department has been investigating the gang for a year and that the residents making complaints about the gang’s activity have largely been migrants who live in the buildings.

Aurora police have publicly tied just one crime this summer to the Tren de Aragua gang: a July 28 shooting in which two men were shot and a third broke his ankle at the apartment building at 1568 Nome St.

One of the suspects in that shooting, Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, 22, is a known Tren de Aragua member, police said in a statement last month. He was arrested after the shooting and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

On Wednesday, Aurora police confirmed they also arrested Pacheco-Chirinos’ brother, 24-year-old Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos, on attempted-murder charges on July 29. Both are documented gang members and remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Aurora police also arrested two other possible Tren de Aragua gang members on charges of tampering with evidence in connection with the July 28 shooting. “These two have gang ties and are suspected to be members of TdA,” police said.

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6603392 2024-09-04T18:35:24+00:00 2024-09-04T18:41:03+00:00
Frenzy over Venezuelan gang in Aurora reaches crescendo, fueled by conflicting information and politics https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/04/venezuelan-gang-colorado-aurora-apartments/ Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:00:59 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6601887 The frenzy over a Venezuelan gang’s presence in Aurora reached a fever pitch over the holiday weekend, fueled in part by viral video of men with guns knocking on an apartment door and by a presidential election in which immigration and border security will be key issues for voters.

Right-wing social media influencers and citizen journalists seized on video shared by Denver’s Fox31 television station showing armed men at an Aurora apartment complex, often adding their own captions and commentary, as it made the rounds on TikTok, X and Facebook.

Even former President Donald Trump weighed in during a podcast interview, repeating unverified claims that gangs were taking over big buildings with “big rifles” in the city.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman appeared on national TV and posted about the Venezuelan gang on his Facebook page, contradicting his police chief about the severity of the situation, and saying the city was preparing to go to court to get a judge’s order to clear out the apartment complexes where the Tren de Aragua gang operates. However, city staff on Tuesday said that is not the immediate plan.

Aurora and Denver police have publicly acknowledged there are Tren de Aragua gang members in their cities, but they say the gang’s numbers are not large and they operate in isolated areas. Others say the Tren de Aragua presence in Aurora, a city of nearly 400,000 people, has been overhyped.

“Those stories are really overblown. If you didn’t live here, you would swear we were being taken over by a gang and Aurora was under siege,” Aurora City Councilwoman Stephanie Hancock said Tuesday. “That’s simply not true.”

Aurora officials over the Labor Day weekend contradicted each other on the scope of the problem and the city’s responses to it.

Coffman claimed on Facebook that five apartment buildings along Dallas Street are “associated with gang activity,” and told Fox News that “several buildings” under the same ownership “have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs,” repeating claims made by property management company CBZ Management that the apartments fell into disarray because of gang activity.

Coffman did not return a request for comment Tuesday.

Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, who has been most outspoken about the gang’s presence in the city, also did not return a call from The Denver Post seeking comment Tuesday.

The mayor’s claim of a gang takeover is disputed by other city officials, who say the longstanding disarray and poor conditions at the apartment buildings were the fault of poor oversight by CBZ Management — not because of criminal acts by Tren de Aragua members.

“There’s this hysteria that we apparently have a gang problem, but what we have is a slumlord problem in the city of Aurora,” City Councilwoman Alison Coombs said.

Aurora interim police Chief Heather Morris said in a video Friday that residents are not paying rent to gang members.

“I’m not saying there’s not gang members that live in this community,” she said in the video, taken at the Edge at Lowry apartments at Dallas Street and 12th Avenue, where officers were talking with residents.

“We’ve really made an effort these last few days to ask the specific questions and direct questions in terms of the gang activity and… making sure that people aren’t paying rent to gang leaders, gang members. That’s not happening. And we’ve discovered here today and yesterday, talking with so many residents, that that is not the case.” she said. “…We’re standing out here, and I can tell you that gang members have not taken over this apartment complex.”

Residents and supporters gather to speak out at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Residents and supporters gather to speak out at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

“We don’t feel threatened by gangs”

Dozens of residents who gathered in the courtyard at the Edge at Lowry apartments Tuesday afternoon said they have not been threatened by — or even interacted with — gang members.

“They say there are gangs and criminals, but the only criminal here is the owner,” resident Moises Didenot told a crowd of reporters.

The residents demanded city leaders hold the “slumlord” building owners accountable for untenable living conditions, including rodents and bedbugs. Didenot held up adhesive mouse traps with three dead mice stuck to them.

Aurora officials have disputed the property manager’s claims that issues at the apartment buildings are due to gangs, instead citing poor upkeep that has resulted in repeated code violations.

Tenants on Tuesday said they were more afraid of the hatred sparked by news coverage.

“We don’t feel threatened by gangs,” said resident Gladis Tovar.

Juan Carlos Alvarado Jimenez speaks about the living conditions within the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Juan Carlos Alvarado Jimenez speaks about the living conditions within the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Multiple people interviewed by The Post, including the two City Council members, specifically referenced the Fox31 report about gangs at the Edge at Lowry complex — featuring the video of armed men in the building — as elevating the national attention on the story.

On Aug. 28, Fox31 reporter Vicente Arenas, who had been reporting on problems at the complex, posted to social media a video that shows six men, one of whom was holding a rifle and four of whom were carrying pistols, knock on a door and go inside an apartment.

Since the footage was first posted on the news station’s website and X accounts, Fox31 says its network partners have confirmed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the men were affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang. Efforts to reach the Fox31 news director Sean McNamara were unsuccessful Tuesday.

On Friday, Coffman wrote in a Facebook post that the city was preparing to seek an emergency court order declaring additional buildings a criminal nuisance — a tactic the city used before evicting 85 families from a building at 1568 Nome St. earlier this year. But city officials denied that Tuesday.

Aurora representatives are planning to meet with the property managers and owners before taking any official action in court, and an emergency court order is “one of several considerations at this time,” city spokesman Michael Brannen said.

“The state law is clear when it comes to a property owner’s responsibility when it comes to addressing health hazards and code violations at the apartment buildings they own,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to aggressively pursue a resolution in order to address the poor conditions impacting residents.”

A decrease in crime in Aurora this year

Emely Gascon stands with neighbor children as residents gather in the courtyard at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Emely Gascon stands with neighbor children as residents gather in the courtyard at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Venezuelan migrants have been arriving in metro Denver as they flee political upheaval, a poor economy and a humanitarian crisis. So far, an estimated 42,700 migrants have come through Denver since January 2023, according to a tracker on the city’s website, although many have moved to other parts of the country to be closer to family and friends.

While some claim the Venezuelan gang is bringing danger to the city, crime in Aurora has declined in 2024 compared to 2023, statistics published by the city show. Overall reported crime dropped 20% in the first eight months of the year when compared to the first eight months of 2023, the statistics show. The city saw declines in homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults.

Aurora police did not answer questions Tuesday about whether they have identified any instances of Tren de Aragua members collecting rent from Aurora residents, how many people have been identified as Tren de Aragua members in the city, or how many criminal acts have been connected to the gang.

Aurora city officials have publicly tied just one crime this summer to the Tren de Aragua gang: a July 28 shooting in which two men were shot and a third broke his ankle at the apartment building at 1568 Nome St.

One of the suspects in that shooting, Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, 22, is a known Tren de Aragua member, police said in a statement Thursday. Pacheco-Chirinos, who uses the alias “Galleta,”  was charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection to that attack.

Pacheco-Chirinos was also charged with aggravated assault after an incident at the apartment complex in November, Aurora police said.

Across the metro area, Tren de Aragua gang members have been arrested in two other incidents this summer: a jewelry store robbery in Denver and an enforcement action by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office on Aug. 21 arrested six people during a routine policing effort near South Quebec Street and High Line Smith Way — a slice of county land sandwiched between Aurora and Denver, spokesman John Bartmann said. Four of those arrestees were later found to be Tren de Aragua members, he said.

“We weren’t looking for them,” Bartmann said, adding that deputies found some drugs and recovered a stolen vehicle during the “proactive” policing effort. He was not able to identify the four arrestees or say Tuesday what charges they faced.

Denver police spokesman Doug Schepman said many people on social media were conflating Denver and Aurora in a “misleading” way. He said officers have no evidence that Tren de Aragua members are targeting Denver apartment complexes for “takeovers.”

The Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
The Edge at Lowry apartment complex in Aurora on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Jon Ewing, a spokesman for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, said the national attention was “fanning ugly rhetoric” during an election year. The mayor’s office is concerned that immigrants who moved to Colorado to start a better life will be harmed. But the city is also working to stop the spread of Tren de Aragua.

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time and be concerned about both of those things,” Ewing said.

Hancock, the Ward 4 Aurora City Council member, said the city is working to build trust among new arrivals so they will report crime to police.

“Our immigrant population is being targeted by gangsters from their own communities,” she said. “They often don’t report for fear of retaliation.”

“The hardest thing is getting people to tell us these things are happening. We need to develop trust with our agencies and we need APD to develop a relationship with people who came here to seek a better life.”

Aurora leaders also are worried about how the national reports reflect upon the city’s reputation.

“It definitely makes it seem like our city is not safe, that it’s not a good place to live, not a good place to do business,” City Council member Coombs said. “It also makes it seem like our city staff and our police department are not trying to serve the public.”

Denver Post reporter Katie Langford contributed to this report. 

This story was updated at 10 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 4 to correct the Aurora ward represented by Stephanie Hancock.

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6601887 2024-09-04T06:00:59+00:00 2024-09-05T08:13:30+00:00
Two killed in separate shootings in Aurora’s Del Mar Parkway neighborhood https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/03/aurora-del-mar-parkway-homicides-shootings/ Wed, 04 Sep 2024 03:06:32 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6602565 Two people were killed in separate shootings in Aurora’s Del Mark Parkway neighborhood in late August, according to police officials.

Officers arrested 72-year-old Bennie Green Jr., on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with an Aug. 24 shooting near the corner of East Colfax Avenue and North Havana Street, the Aurora Police Department said in a news release.

Police were called to the area around 2 p.m. and found a man with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to the hospital and later died.

Investigators allege Green and the man knew each other but did not detail how they were connected. The man will be identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.

Aurora police are still looking for a suspect in an Aug. 18 shooting near East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street that killed 25-year-old Oswaldo Jose Dabion Ararujo, department officials said in a news release.

Officers responded to reports of shots fired around 11:30 p.m. and found Ararujo with a gunshot wound. He was taken to the hospital and later died.

Anyone with information about the shootings can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-912-7867.

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6602565 2024-09-03T21:06:32+00:00 2024-09-03T22:16:30+00:00
7-Eleven security guard kills man in self-defense, Aurora police say https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/01/aurora-colorado-7-eleven-security-guard-shooting/ Sun, 01 Sep 2024 17:43:00 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6582631 A 7-Eleven security guard shot and killed a man Saturday night at a store in Aurora in what police are calling self-defense.

A 36-year-old man approached the security guard from behind and pointed a gun at his head at the convenience store in the 12000 block of East Colfax Avenue just after 9 p.m. Saturday, according to an Aurora Police Department news release. The two men fought over the gun, and the security guard drew his firearm and fired one shot at the attacker.

Aurora police officers treated the man who was shot when they arrived on scene but he later died at a hospital, the news release said.

The 38-year-old security guard was questioned at Aurora police headquarters, and investigators determined the shooting appeared to be in self-defense. However, the investigation is ongoing, the police news release stated.

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6582631 2024-09-01T11:43:00+00:00 2024-09-01T18:16:55+00:00
Aurora police ended AI review of body cameras. Unprofessionalism plummeted when it was in use, new research shows. https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/29/aurora-police-body-cameras-ai-review-truleo-unprofessionalism/ Thu, 29 Aug 2024 22:04:39 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6579971 Unprofessionalism at the Aurora Police Department decreased substantially when the agency used artificial intelligence software to review every minute of officers’ body-worn camera footage last year, outside researchers found.

Incidents of officers using profanity, insults, threats and inappropriate language dropped by 57% among 220 Aurora police officers during a six-month span from July to December, according to an executive summary from researchers at the University of South Carolina and Clemson University that was obtained by The Denver Post on Thursday.

The first-ever empirical results showing the AI software’s impact come months after Aurora stopped using the system. The city opted not to renew its deal with AI company Truleo in March, when its one-year, $250,000 contract ended for the automated body-worn footage review service.

The police department began using Truleo during the tenure of interim chief Art Acevedo, who had previously worked as a strategic advisor for Truleo but said he disinvested from the company before joining Aurora’s police force. He at the time hailed it a “tool to help us identify the good, the bad and the ugly.”

At most police agencies, including Aurora’s, the vast majority of body-worn camera footage is never reviewed — departments simply do not have the staffing to regularly look through officers’ day-to-day footage. Truleo’s software automates that review process, using AI to analyze the videos’ audio for language the software considers either professional or unprofessional.

The software is designed to flag poor behavior and highlight good policing. It doesn’t account for an officer’s tone or consider the use of force, but is focused solely on the words an officer says.

After Acevedo’s departure in January, the city opted not to renew its contract with Truleo, bringing the technological oversight to an end.

“We had concerns about its functionality, is my understanding,” city spokesman Ryan Luby said, citing problems with the accuracy of the software’s transcriptions. He declined to comment further Thursday.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and a spokeswoman for Aurora police did not immediately comment.

The city’s newest police chief, Todd Chamberlain, declined to say whether he’d bring back any similar AI body-worn camera monitoring during a news conference last week, but said he embraces the use of emerging technologies in policing.

“I am going to look for the most effective, efficient ways to use technology to enhance the Aurora Police Department’s commitment and service to the community we serve, and I never will shy away from that,” he said.

Truleo CEO Anthony Tassone said Thursday he’d like to see Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser mandate that the software be used at the Aurora Police Department, which is currently under court-ordered oversight and reform after Weiser found a pattern of racially biased policing in the troubled agency.

“In Aurora, it’s not going to work for Truleo to contract directly with the department, a one-year contract,” he said. “We see what happens. A chief leaves, and all of our work gets thrown out of the window. We would be willing to go back into Aurora, but it’s got to be with the attorney general. And with a long-term mindset.”

The independent study into Truleo’s impact at the Aurora Police Department examined 124,443 videos from body-worn cameras and divided Aurora’s officers into three groups: a control group of officers who did not receive feedback from Truleo; a self-auditing group of officers who could review their Truleo metrics on their own; and a supervisor-mediated group of officers who received feedback about their Truleo findings from their supervisors.

The system varies across departments, but, generally, officers can log into Truleo and see their own videos, professionalism scores and transcripts. The system sends congratulatory emails to officers who score well for professionalism and composure, and alerts supervisors to unprofessional incidents, Tassone said.

Incidents of unprofessionalism dropped by 48% in the self-auditing group and by 67% in the supervisor-mediated group, when compared to baseline rates, the executive summary states. The document does not say whether the control group changed.

The summary outlines the study’s initial findings; the work has yet to go through the additional vetting of the peer review process and full results have not been published.

Researcher Ian Adams, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, on Thursday praised the Aurora Police Department for opening up to the study of the brand-new AI technology. He emphasized that the executive summary shows preliminary results.

“It’s not easy to be at the cutting edge of this sort of thing,” Adams said. “This is the first time it has been tested empirically and carefully. That is a vulnerable place for agencies to be. And it shows they want some change, or at least did during our time there.”

The researchers looked not only at Truleo in Aurora, but also examined how the AI software impacted 180 officers in the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in South Carolina. There, researchers saw an 82% increase in highly professional behavior over a six-month span, according to the executive summary. The summary did not describe changes in unprofessionalism in that department.

Highly professional behavior is defined as interactions in which officers not only use appropriate language but also offer explanations to members of the public about the officers’ actions before acting, like before frisking a suspect or issuing a citation, Adams said.

Tassone, the company’s CEO, on Thursday hailed the executive summary as “absolutely conclusive proof” that reviewing all body-worn camera footage improves professionalism at police departments.

“This study is two opposite departments, one in a consent decree and one that is a very squared away, super professional, first-class sheriff’s department,” Tassone said. “Truleo benefits both.”

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6579971 2024-08-29T16:04:39+00:00 2024-08-30T10:26:58+00:00
Woman assaults Cherry Creek school bus driver after altercation with student, police say https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/28/cherry-creek-school-district-bus-driver-assault/ Thu, 29 Aug 2024 03:04:58 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6579430 A Cherry Creek School District bus driver who aggressively grabbed a student on a broken-down school bus Wednesday was subsequently assaulted by a woman and sustained minor injuries, according to the Aurora Police Department.

Officers responded to the area of South Kittredge Street and South Mission Parkway around 4 p.m. to a suspicious incident involving students on a school bus, said department spokesperson Sydney Edwards.

Police found that after the bus broke down in the area, the bus driver “grabbed the student in an aggressive way,” Edwards said.

A short time later, a woman arrived at the bus and, after the bus doors opened, began assaulting the driver, according to Aurora police.

The woman fled the scene with the student before officers arrived.

Investigators are working to identify the woman who left the scene and still determining if the student’s family wants to press charges against the bus driver, Edwards said.

Cherry Creek School District is investigating the incident, spokesperson Lauren Snell said in an email.

Families were informed of the incident in a phone call Wednesday, which stated that the bus stalled because of a mechanical issue, which meant the driver couldn’t open the doors right away.

“An altercation occurred on the bus and police and district security responded to the scene,” district officials said in a statement. “There were no reports of injuries among students and the bus driver suffered minor injuries. A second bus came to pick up the remaining students and transported them home.”

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6579430 2024-08-28T21:04:58+00:00 2024-08-28T21:34:45+00:00
5 injured in Aurora crash after car runs red light https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/28/aurora-crash-injuries-investigation-red-light-40th-pena-police/ Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:55:03 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6578438 Five people were sent to the hospital Wednesday morning after a two-vehicle crash in Aurora, police said.

One of the cars ran a red light and crashed into the other, the Aurora Police Department said in a statement on social media. The car may also have been speeding.

Around 2 a.m. Wednesday, Aurora officers responded to reports of a crash near East 40th Avenue and Peña Boulevard, police said.

Paramedics took five unidentified adults to the hospital — two with serious or life-threatening injuries and three with minor injuries — police said.

The crash shut down all lanes of East 40th Avenue and Peña Boulevard for multiple hours Wednesday morning for the crash investigation and clean-up, police said.

As of 6:30 a.m., Peña Boulevard had reopened but East 40th Avenue remained closed.

This is a developing story. 

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6578438 2024-08-28T06:55:03+00:00 2024-08-28T06:55:03+00:00
Father of Elijah McClain pleads guilty to assaulting police officer https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/27/elijah-mcclain-father-guilty-assault-police-officer-colorado/ Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:20:47 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6577335 The father of Elijah McClain on Monday pleaded guilty to assaulting a Colorado State Patrol trooper during a drunk driving arrest in January.

Lawayne Mosley, 54, pleaded guilty to felony assault on a police officer and driving under the influence. Charges of careless driving and possessing a gun while drunk were dismissed, according to court records.

He will be sentenced on Oct. 28 in Arapahoe County District Court.

Mosley was stopped by a Colorado state trooper on Jan. 20 after another driver reported that he was weaving and not maintaining his speed while driving on Interstate 70 just before 5:30 p.m. Mosley had already pulled off the highway and into a gas station in Adams County when the trooper contacted him, the agency said.

Mosley didn’t follow a trooper’s instructions to get out of the vehicle, and when the trooper “began to assist” him out of the car, Mosley assaulted the trooper, the state patrol said.

An Adams County sheriff’s deputy who arrived at the scene used a Taser on Mosley, who was then treated for injuries caused by the Taser. He suffered no other injuries in the arrest.

Mosley identified himself as McClain’s father during the arrest. Mosley’s son was 23 years old and had committed no crime when Aurora police officers violently and wrongly arrested him in 2019. The officers put McClain in a neck hold and an Aurora paramedic injected him with an overdose of the sedative ketamine, leading to McClain’s death.

Three first responders were convicted of crimes in McClain’s death, including two paramedics and a then-Aurora police officer. The case led to court-ordered oversight and reform of the Aurora police department and statewide reform to limit the use of ketamine during police encounters. The city of Aurora paid $15 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by McClain’s parents.

An attorney for Mosley did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

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6577335 2024-08-27T10:20:47+00:00 2024-08-27T16:37:35+00:00
New Aurora police chief vows to build trust amid criticism of opaque hiring process: “I’m here for the long haul” https://www.denverpost.com/2024/08/22/todd-chamberlain-aurora-police-chief-transparency-hiring-process/ Thu, 22 Aug 2024 21:23:40 +0000 https://www.denverpost.com/?p=6573261 Aurora’s next police chief stood at a podium in a darkened room before a line of TV news cameras Thursday and pledged to rebuild trust between community members and the police force.

“Give me a chance,” Todd Chamberlain said. “Let’s partner, let’s collaborate. Let’s work together. I’m here for the long haul.”

The 61-year-old Los Angeles Police Department veteran made the appeal after he was selected to be the city’s sixth police chief in five years through a hiring process that happened entirely behind closed doors and with no public input — a departure from past chief selections and an approach both he and City Manager Jason Batchelor defended during a news conference Thursday at the Aurora Municipal Center.

“I think the question has to be, well, has the selection process worked in the past?” Chamberlain said. “And I’m gonna be very candid with you, I don’t think it has. You’ve had five chiefs in five years… but I know I’m here to commit. I’m here to say that I am part of the city of Aurora.”

The closed-door approach was criticized by Aurora community members, including state Sens. Rhonda Fields and Janet Buckner, both Aurora Democrats, who said in a joint statement Thursday that the city’s private hiring process “signals an unwillingness to learn from past mistakes.”

“Excluding community members and leaders from this important decision once again has missed a crucial opportunity to heal past traumas and build towards stronger collaboration between the community and law enforcement,” the statement said.

Batchelor called the city’s last attempt to hire a permanent police chief “a failed public process” and said he opted to select the city’s next chief in private in order to “provide the highest probability to find the best-qualified candidates,” noting that a non-public process allowed candidates to apply without jeopardizing their standing with their current police departments.

Chamberlain repeatedly said Thursday he wanted to interact with the community but did not give any specifics on how he would do that or whether he would hold any public meetings before Aurora’s City Council votes to confirm his hiring Monday. If he is confirmed by the council, Chamberlain will be sworn in Sept. 9, ending more than two years of interim leadership at the police department.

In wide-ranging comments during Thursday’s news conference, Chamberlain focused on the breadth of his prior experience in law enforcement, his commitment to stay in Aurora for the long term and the need to rebuild trust both between officers and leadership within the police department and between officers and community members.

“Aurora is now my home,” he said.

Chamberlain spent 34 years at the Los Angeles Police Department before retiring as a commander in 2018. He briefly worked as the police chief for the Los Angeles Unified School District but resigned after less than a year on the job over budget cuts, and was previously a finalist for chief jobs in CincinnatiLittle Rock, Arkansas; and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

While at the Los Angeles Police Department, he was named in a 2011 lawsuit — though not as a defendant — brought by a Black police officer who said he experienced racist pranks and harassment in his unit, including the presentation of a cake topped with fried chicken and watermelons to mark his 20th year of service at the police department.

The officer claimed Chamberlain knew about the harassment but failed to take action. A jury awarded the officer $1.2 million in 2013, court records show.

Chamberlain denied the officer’s characterization of events Thursday, saying he took over leadership of a unit that had a years-long pattern of inappropriate racist misconduct and within “two weeks” identified the problem and alerted a workplace evaluation team, then the department’s internal affairs investigators. Chamberlain also reassigned a sergeant who was responsible for much of the problem, he said.

“It was Black on Black officers, it was Hispanic on Black, it was Asian on Black, and then there were a couple of white officers that were involved in this as well,” he said. “Basically, it was a practice that this unit had been allowed to cultivate. I was there for two weeks. I saw this, I identified it.”

He said the experience of flagging and addressing that misconduct helped to prepare him to take similar action in Aurora, if needed.

“You have to have someone in charge who is willing to step forward and take those on,” he said. “And I’ll tell you, it’s not a pleasant experience. You’ve all probably been involved in workplace issues, or seen it, and know how it can basically eat away the core of not only that unit, but the whole organization. And I’m not going to accept that. If I find that here, I’m going to do the same thing.”

Todd Chamberlain speaks during a press conference where he was introduced as the new Aurora Police Department chief on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, at the Aurora Municipal Center. Chamberlain worked at the LAPD from 1984 to 2018, when he retired as a commander. This is Aurora's seventh chief in five years. (Photo by Daniel Brenner/Special to The Denver Post)
Todd Chamberlain speaks during a news conference where he was introduced as the new Aurora Police Department chief on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, at the Aurora Municipal Center. Chamberlain worked at the LAPD from 1984 to 2018, when he retired as a commander. This is Aurora’s sixth chief in five years. (Photo by Daniel Brenner/Special to The Denver Post)

Aurora’s police department is undergoing court-ordered reform and oversight after Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser found a pattern of racist bias and excessive force among the city’s police officers that repeatedly violated state and federal law.

Weiser on Thursday called for the creation of an independent monitor position to continue outside oversight of the police department after the court oversight expires in 2027.

“It is clear to me that Aurora must have an independent police monitor in place when the consent decree expires,” Weiser said. “A permanent structure for independent review of the police department would help ensure that reform, accountability, and transparency continue, and that the city is responsive to community concerns.”

Batchelor said the city will include funding to re-establish an independent monitor in the 2026 budget. Chamberlain also said that he supports continued independent oversight.

“I believe in it, I think it’s an important aspect,” Chamberlain said. “It’s something that we should not ever shy away from. I think if you have an organization or department that is running properly, running ethically, doing all the right steps, that should be applauded. That should be seen. That should be very transparent.”

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