An Aurora Police officer shot and killed a man over the weekend in what Aurora’s police chief described as a routine traffic stop that escalated quickly into a deadly confrontation.
It happened Saturday evening around 7:30pm. In a briefing with the media Chief Todd Chamberlain said the incident occurred at the intersection of 6th Avenue and Billings after a traffic infraction caused an officer to try to pull a suspect over, and the suspect rear-ended another vehicle.
“He tried to make a traffic stop,” said Chamberlain. “The behavior of the suspect was not normal. He plowed into another vehicle in front of him, which caused it with such force to go across the median and into oncoming traffic. He then crashed into another car. He refused at this point that we know for sure to listen to our officer's directions. He refused to adhere to what the officer was saying.”
Chamberlain said the suspect became aggressive and approached the officer and that the lone officer on scene appeared to fire one to three shots. Neither the name of the officer or the man who was killed were immediately released. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave Saturday. Chamberlain said the department will release the officer’s body camera footage and said other cameras nearby captured the incident as well as videos from bystanders.
“So that's the one thing that it doesn't appear right now that we are lacking, is having a good understanding, from the aspect of digitally capturing of video capture, what this event involved, what occurred,” he said.`
He said they know without question there was a weapon on scene.
“There was discussion by the suspect trying to either retrieve that weapon or get assistance in dealing with this lone officer,” Chamberlain said.
The 18th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team will investigate the shooting. And the Aurora Police Department said it is also reviewing it and urged calm within the community and asked them to wait until the investigation unfolds and said there won’t be answers overnight.
“There's a lot of information that we have to figure out. This is without question a tragedy at every level, there is nothing positive about this," Chamberlain said. "There is nothing positive for our officer. There is nothing positive for the suspect involved for his family. There is nothing positive for the community that had to witness this.”
One thing that’s likely to come up in the investigation is why the officer involved did not render medical aid to the suspect. Chamberlain said that’s something APD would look into but said an officer has to feel secure in being able to provide that aid.
In recent years, Aurora’s Black community has voiced its distrust in APD due to a pattern of racial profiling tactics from officers. The death of Elijah McClain in 2019 prompted the Colorado Attorney General’s Office to enter into a consent decree with Aurora on officer training after the office found a pattern and practice of racially-biased policing. It’s the first time in Colorado history that a city has entered into such an agreement with the state.
Chamberlain joined APD as chief in August of 2024, and became the first permanent police chief for Aurora since 2022. He has said rebuilding community trust is a top priority.
