Colorado police shot someone every 6 days in 2024, data shows

The first call came from her nephew Then news stations started reaching out asking how she felt that the Aurora police officer responsible for her son s death had not been charged Kilyn Lewis who is seen in an undated picture provided by his mother was fatally shot by an Aurora Police Department SWAT officer in May Courtesy of LaRonda Jones Right there I swore to myself at that moment that I would never stop fighting until we got justice LaRonda Jones the mother of Kilyn Lewis noted I will continue to fight even harder not only for justice in my son s death but for all those other parents all those other mothers and fathers and grandparents who have gone through the same thing I m going through Colorado police officers and sheriff s deputies shot someone roughly every six days in according to information compiled by The Denver Post They killed people including Lewis and wounded others for a total of That s down four shootings from when law enforcement killed Coloradans and injured another Colorado still ranked eighth in the country last year for fatal police shootings per capita with people killed per million residents according to national content from Mapping Police Violence Black people were disproportionately killed by law enforcement in Colorado a trend that persists across the country according to the organization s content on deadly police shootings and one law enforcement agency saw a increase in police shootings between and Lewis a -year-old Black man was unarmed and holding a cellphone when Aurora police officers shot him in the parking lot of an apartment complex last May He was shot within six seconds of officers surrounding him and shouting commands Lewis was needed on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder in a separate Aurora shooting earlier that month Black people were more likely to be killed by police more likely to be unarmed and less likely to be threatening someone when killed Mapping Police Violence s account stated Police disproportionately kill Black people year after year Who did Colorado law enforcement shoot The majority of people shot and killed by law enforcement in both and were white men armed with guns according to the statistics compiled by The Post However Black Coloradans were overrepresented in the details which includes information from law enforcement agencies coroner s offices and national databases Nearly of people killed by Colorado law enforcement in were Black but Black people make up less than of the state s population according to the U S Census Bureau LaRonda Jones holds a blood-stained bracelet and necklace belonging to her late son Kilyn Lewis at Starr Park in Forest Park Georgia on April Jones has kept the jewelry and other pieces of evidence in their original condition since the Aurora police shooting that left her son dead Photo by Alyssa Pointer Special to The Denver Post The percentage of Black Coloradans shot by law enforcement could be even higher announced Julie Ward an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University who studies populace procedures and gun violence including police shootings When we include both fatal and injury shootings nationally it appears that racial disparities may in fact be worse than we thought Ward stated If we re only looking at fatal shootings then we re disregarding more injuries to Black survivors The Post was unable to run a similar analysis because of the lack of demographic information available on people who were shot by Colorado law enforcement agents but survived The federal authorities has never successfully mandated that law enforcement agencies overview use-of-force incidents leaving countless researchers to rely on coverage from local media announced Andrea Borrego a professor of criminal justice and criminology at Metropolitan State University of Denver Particular states including Colorado have started requiring comprehensive reporting but that doesn t invariably work she declared Colorado s Law Enforcement Integrity Act requires the Division of Criminal Justice s Office of Research and Statistics to document input submitted by state and local law enforcement on citizen contacts and use of force However no details was yet available for and the office s database only recorded instances in in which an officer or deputy fired a gun at a suspect That s a -case gap between the state s records and what The Post recorded in Click to enlarge It s very apparent what is happening to our area but it goes beyond the input It goes beyond the research and the studies noted MiDian Shofner CEO of the Denver-based Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership There are things about these stories that are not shared and that I think is where I can say that our society knows that this is a reality She stated the material doesn t show the insults hurled at the families when they try to be a voice for their loved ones including an instance when Aurora City Councilwoman Stephanie Hancock called Lewis s family and other public organizers a bunch of bullies terrorists anarchists opportunists provocateurs and others who want to lift their voices so they can get social media clicks or how law enforcement agencies often shut them out Those are input points they don t have a system for Shofner announced That hurt that pain that reality goes beyond any research in any evaluation Frank Powels Kristin Dock Everett Shockley and Kory Dillard were all Black men also killed in by law enforcement in Broomfield Jefferson and Arapahoe counties Powels Dock and Shockley were armed two with guns and one with a broken broomstick handle but Dillard was holding a replica airsoft rifle You don t get a chance to redo this scene and this act over again Jones Lewis s mother revealed When you take a life that s it There s no coming back from that And that s what we re facing and dealing with every day The Douglas and Adams County coroners declined to release victim names and demographic information to The Post leaving the ages races and genders of of people killed by law enforcement in and in unknown Other findings by The Post include Despite making up nearly of Colorado s population of people shot and killed by state law enforcement in were white Three women in and two women in were fatally shot by Colorado law enforcement That s and of all casualties killed in each of those years About of people shot and killed by police in were Hispanic though they make up of Colorado s population In of fatal police shooting casualties were Hispanic At least three people shot in and five people shot in were unarmed or not shared to be armed by law enforcement At least five people shot in and six in were suicidal or experiencing a mental wellness situation Roughly of those shot and killed by police in were adults under the age of That age group only makes up of Colorado s population according to federal records At least people shot by police in were fleeing law enforcement in their car or on foot up from in Another police shootings stemmed from traffic stops in more than double the four traffic stop shootings documented in The majority of common calls that escalated into police shootings were disturbances fights and reports of suspicious people accounting for roughly a third of incidents in both and Of those calls eight in and six in included assertions of domestic violence More than a dozen shootings each year at least in and in stemmed from officers trying to serve an arrest warrant or contact a suspect in a crime Click to enlarge A variety of factors impact police shootings including specific law enforcement agencies training of officers and use of force policies local crime rates firearm ownership society diversity and which agencies are responsible for responding to mental fitness crises so numbers are unpredictable from year to year Across the country the largest part frequent events that escalate into fatal police shootings involve verbal or physical threats Ward explained That includes assaults domestic violence incidents and people verbalizing threats of harm to themselves or others Police shootings escalating from well-being checks or other social demands were less common across the country but more likely to be lethal she disclosed Ward revealed the details calls attention to an opportunity for a different response where people should be able to think of police as a last resort when a better fit response isn t available She disclosed cities should invest in more targeted responses to these social demands to reduce exposure to the foreseen harms from policing LaRonda Jones holds an evidence envelope containing the belongings of her late son Kilyn Lewis at Starr Park in Forest Park Georgia on April The envelope contains Lewis wallet and blood-stained jewelry amongst other items Lewis was fatally shot by an Aurora SWAT officer in May Photo by Alyssa Pointer Special to The Denver Post Which departments had the majority incidents Eight Colorado law enforcement agencies saw essential increases in police shootings between and ranging from to In total agencies that had zero incidents in documented at least one police shooting in according to The Post s details On the other hand departments that had at least one police shooting in disclosed no incidents last year Thornton police officers shot seven people in killing six of them That s the highest of any Colorado law enforcement agency last year and a increase from the two people shot in Thornton police in One Thornton officer was shot when a -year-old man resisted arrest and grabbed the officer s gun after reportedly assaulting someone at a nearby gas station Another two officers were injured in an hours-long standoff and shootout that rattled Thornton s Orchard Farms subdivision and ended with the suspect dead In each of Thornton s six fatal police shootings the persons of interest were armed and had fired their weapons though not necessarily at people Division Cmdr Tom Connor noted That is altogether out of the norm for us not somebody being armed in an officer-involved shooting but having six in one year where that was the event That s absolutely an anomaly Connor disclosed Under Colorado law when doable officers are required to give accused a chance to comply and use nonlethal force if available Connor noted Thornton officers did not attempt to use nonlethal force in any of the six fatal shootings but Connor stated the defendants escalated the situation Connor explained it can also be more dangerous for officers to use nonlethal force when people are armed because it doesn t right now incapacitate them He stated it allows the armed suspect to continue to assault officers or others in the area In the end it comes down to a split-second decision and officers must act to protect themselves or others in danger Connor revealed Thornton was followed closely in police shootings by Colorado Springs where four people were killed and two were wounded Aurora where four people were killed and one was wounded and Denver where two people were killed and two were wounded Pueblo and Lakewood police shot another three people in each city Thornton s per-capita rate of shootings per residents in quadrupled Aurora s rate of and was more than eight times Denver s rate of In Aurora according to the Use of Force Summary arrests and use-of-force incidents have risen every year since even as calls for facility have steadily declined Cat Moring from the Denver Justice Project mentioned in an emailed message to The Post This trend reflects internal agenda decisions and a department custom that continues to prioritize force over district trust The Aurora Police Department was placed under a consent decree by state authorities in after a Colorado Attorney General s Office probe into Elijah McClain s killing ascertained a pattern of racially biased policing and excessive force Despite these reforms the department has failed to rebuild trust as evidenced by the decline in calls for police institution Moring declared People are calling the police less because they fear dangerous encounters LaKayla Grundy from left Jonathan Grundy LaRonda Jones and LaRonda Grundy stand for a portrait at Starr Park in Forest Park Georgia on April Kilyn Lewis who was fatally shot by an Aurora SWAT officer is LaKayla Jonathan and LaRonda Grundy s older brother and LaRonda Jones son Photo by Alyssa Pointer Special to The Denver Post Leaving sufferers families in the lurch Language is extremely vital Shofner the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership CEO mentioned Oftentimes when this story is informed and the narrative is put out we ll say that the Black neighborhood doesn t trust the police I don t think that s saying it the right way It s that the police have lost the trust of the Black district Jones declared the lack of trust also stems from the lack of information and communication from law enforcement agencies She mentioned the shortage of answers was one of the majority intricate things to deal with after her son s shooting As soon as Jones could after finding out about the shooting she was on a plane from her home in Georgia to Colorado Aurora representatives called her while she was at the airport but they could only direct her to the hospital and didn t know Lewis status It was really frustrating because I had a lot of questions that were unanswered Jones declared Questions like Who was the officer who killed my son and What s going to be done about this So a lot of anger was building up as I couldn t get my questions answered Connor announced investigators from Colorado s various Critical Happening Response Teams don t release information to the involved departments during the investigations into police shootings At least for Thornton whatever the department releases publicly after the shooting including body camera footage is all officers outside of the study know he mentioned Any officer-involved shooting can affect general trust Connor commented There s the prospective that it looks like law enforcement is hiding information from the constituents when in reality the majority of the time we re not entitled to the information But Jones mentioned her struggle with the Aurora Police Department continued even after the study was closed and no charges were filed against SWAT officer Michael Dieck who shot and killed her son She announced she was still continuously dismissed by the police department LaRonda Jones holds a memorial sash from her son Kilyn Lewis s funeral at Starr Park in Forest Park Georgia on April Lewis was fatally shot by an Aurora SWAT officer in May Photo by Alyssa Pointer Special to The Denver Post What happened to the officers who shot people Despite up-to-date reforms such as ending qualified immunity in state court requiring body-worn cameras and mandating decertification for officers who engage in misconduct the threshold for what counts as misconduct remains extraordinarily high Moring reported Related Articles displaced after apartment fire in Aurora Thornton police seek suspect after alleged road-rage shooting shooters shots Man sentenced to years in prison in deadly Five Points shootout Trump Department of Justice sues Colorado Denver administrators over immigration laws Ma Kaing killed in East Colfax shooting remembered as champion of the American dream Moring announced officers are rarely held accountable and the families of police shooting casualties are often left to pursue justice on their own Families are still forced to choose between fighting for criminal charges or seeking civil remedies rarely with the support promotion or ceiling to do both she revealed All but one of the police shootings in for which The Post was able to obtain decision letters were ruled justified La Salle police Officer Erik Hernandez took a deal and pleaded guilty in January to manslaughter after shooting and killing -year-old Juston Reffel in his car outside of a dollar store on May No charges have been filed in any of the police shootings for which The Post has obtained copies of district attorneys decision letters Jones noted she was not surprised when Arapahoe County District Attorney John Kellner decided not to file charges against Dieck who shot and killed her son Kellner announced Dieck reasonably supposed there was an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury which justified the officer s use of force under Colorado law according to Kellner s decision letter to the police department There s no healing Jones revealed Until we get justice it won t even begin Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day