Aurora police shoot, kill teen who allegedly had weapon near East 8th Avenue and North Dayton Street
Aurora police shot and killed a teen boy near East 8th Avenue and North Dayton Street Thursday evening.
Aurora police initially said one person was shot and injured and no officers were believed to be injured but in a news conference about two hours later, Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo said the boy that was shot died of his injuries, along with other details.
The 14-year-old has been identified as Jor'Dell Da'Shawn Richardson by the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office. He died of a gunshot wound and his death is classified as a homicide.
Around 4:20 p.m. Thursday, a sergeant in Aurora police's gang unit saw a group of five to seven teens wearing masks and donning hoods from hooded jackets, according to Acevedo.
"In this weather, in this heat and with no COVID going on, he considered it suspicious behavior," Acevedo said
That sergeant called for backup, went into the alley behind the strip plaza and saw a dark Kia minivan, Acevedo said. The sergeant ran the license plate and the van was reported stolen. The van started to leave and that sergeant began following them as other gang unit members arrived near the scene.
They chased one of the teens wearing a mask and hoodie. Acevedo said Richardson was armed with a handgun and had just robbed a nearby mini-mart and stolen several vape cartridges. As he was running, he fell to the ground and then began struggling with officers.
One of the teens was arrested without incident but Richardson who was armed, Acevedo said, refused orders from the officers and one of them shot him. According to Acevedo, the officer who shot Richardson fired one round.
After disarming Richardson, officers began rendering aid, including giving CPR after the teen lost consciousness, according to Acevedo. Aurora Fire Rescue arrived and took Richardson to the hospital where he died of his injuries.
The officers that responded were uniformed and had body-worn cameras activated. The officer that fired his gun has been with the department since 2017 and the gang unit since 2019, but Acevedo did not otherwise identify them but said he reviewed the bodycam footage.
The officer that fired his gun has been placed on administrative leave and the shooting is being investigated by a Critical Incident Response Team from outside agencies.
"This is a tragedy all the way around, there's no other way to look at it," Acevedo said. "When you have a young person and a group of young people going into a store that is being operated by a working family trying to make a living and they go in there with a semi-automatic firearm. These kids think that this is a video game ... this is a real-world situation where lives are at risk ... my heart goes out to the family of that young man."
Officers are continuing to look for the Kia van that fled and the person or people inside.
