Surveillance video captures teen suspect hiding from police after Aurora smoke shop robbery
Aurora police shot and killed a teen robbery suspect near East 8th Avenue and North Dayton Street Thursday. APD says he ran after being contacted by officers and was armed with a gun. During a struggle to take him into custody, an officer fired his weapon.
The 14-year-old suspect 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.
The clerk at the store was unharmed after teens ran out with stolen vape cartridges.
CBS Colorado spoke to neighbors who know the owner of the store that was robbed. They say this wasn't the first time they've been victims of a crime.
Neighbor, Juleia Bly, told CBS News Colorado reporter Tori Mason, a young girl was working the counter when a group of teens robbed the store.
"Literally an hour before everything went off I was there," Bly said. "I was talking to the girl. I was like 'it gets pretty crazy out here. You need to be safe.'"
The clerk was left unharmed after teens ran out with stolen vape supplies.
A sergeant was on patrol when he saw them flee the store.
Around 4:20 p.m. Thursday, the sergeant in Aurora police's gang unit saw a group of five to seven teens wearing masks and donning hoods from hooded jackets.
That sergeant called for backup, went into the alley behind the strip plaza and saw a Kia minivan. The sergeant ran the license plate as 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.
Frankie, a neighbor who lives nearby, captured a suspect evading police on his home surveillance camera.
"He's looking around, trying to hide underneath the car, trying to duck," Frankie said. "The cops missed him by this much when he ran off. So yeah, that's pretty wild. That's pretty scary."
Two suspects are in custody.
Several more drove off in stolen Kia.
The 14-year-old suspect Jor'Dell Richardson had a gun while running from police. As he was running, he fell to the ground and then began struggling with officers, according to Aurora Chief Art Acevedo.
Acevedo says, one of the teens was arrested without incident but Richardson, who was armed, refused orders from the officers and one of them shot him.
The officer who shot Richardson fired one round, according to Acevedo.
After disarming Richardson, officers began rendering aid, including giving CPR after the teen lost consciousness. Aurora Fire Rescue arrived and took Richardson to the hospital where he later 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.
"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."
Around the corner from the shooting, kids not much younger than the suspects, wonder if violence will find them next. Their uncle, Ramiro Locano, was at the neighboring store with his young niece and nephew the day after the shooting.
His niece is afraid of guns.
"I have my whole family to protect me so I don't get shoot [sic]," said the little girl. "I don't like when people shoot people."
Locano would like to see more police presence in the area.
"It's kind of heartbreaking knowing that she's concerned at her age. It's something to be worried about," Locano said.
Officers are continuing to look for the Kia van that fled.
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.
CBS News Colorado requested body cam footage from APD Friday and the department says it's not available to the public yet.
UPDATE: Protestors follow hearse to remember Jor'dell Richardson who died after being shot by Aurora police
