Prosecutor: No charges against Aurora officer who shot homeowner saving his grandson — VIDEO LINK

AURORA |  An Aurora police officer will not face charges for fatally shooting a homeowner who had just killed an intruder inside his north Aurora home in July, prosecutors said in a letter released Monday.

The same officer had killed another suspect in an incident just weeks before the fatal July shooting.

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Adams County District Attorney Dave Young described Richard “Gary” Black’s death as a “harrowing tragedy” but said his role was to determine whether the Aurora Police officer who shot the 73-year-old Vietnam War veteran was justified in using deadly force.

Based on witness interviews and more than 90 videos captured by officers’ body cameras, Young said Officer Drew Limbaugh did not know who Black was and fired when the homeowner refused police commands to drop his handgun.

Earlier this year, lawyers for Black’s family questioned why officers yelling at Black to drop his weapon did not identify themselves as police. They also questioned why Limbaugh was returned to active duty after having shot and killed another suspect about a month before this shooting.

Young said Limbaugh’s belief was reasonable and prosecutors cannot prove that the officer was not justified in firing. He said there also is no evidence that Limbaugh was reckless or criminally negligent.

“Officer Limbaugh engaged in conduct that was consciously focused on minimizing the risk to public safety,” Young wrote.

Through their lawyers, members of the Black family condemned Young’s decision to absolve Limbaugh.

“The District Attorney’s report selectively emphasizes certain facts in order to justify its conclusion,” Attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai, who has represented the Black family for several months, said in a statement. “But the report minimizes what is clear from the body camera footage: the officers who responded to the Black residence never identified themselves as law enforcement to Mr. Black prior to shooting him dead.

“Although Mr. Black possessed a handgun — which he had used to defend his family — he never raised or pointed the handgun at law enforcement officers. Rather, Mr. Black only raised his flashlight to see who was shouting at him. The family requested the relevant portion of the body-worn camera video be released to the public.”

A spokesman for Aurora police confirmed tonight the department will release some of the body-cam footage detailing the interaction between Black and officers.

At the time of the shooting, Young said police did not know that Black had woken after midnight to investigate banging sounds and soon heard his 11-year-old grandson screaming as an intruder attacked him inside the bathroom. Police also did not know that the intruder, later identified as Dajon Harper, was lying on the bathroom floor after being shot twice by Black, he said.

“The evaluation of Officer Limbaugh’s reasonable belief must be based not upon what we now know, but the circumstances as he perceived them at the time: hearing gunshots and then seeing an armed man emerge from a back room who refused commands to drop the weapon,” Young wrote.

The witnesses and police officers interviewed by investigators painted a chaotic scene. Young said police arriving at the home in Aurora around 1:30 a.m. on July 30 had little information and no description of a suspect.

Within seconds, he said police heard gunshots inside the house and saw Black come into the hallway holding a handgun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Young said the body camera footage shows police repeatedly told Black to drop his weapon before he came toward officers, raising the flashlight, and Limbaugh fired four times. An autopsy revealed Black was struck three times in three different locations on his body: the shoulder, the chest, and the upper back, according to the report.

Police have said Black had hearing impairment due to his military service. Young wrote that Black may not have heard the commands or recognized the officers as police but said that does not change Limbaugh’s “reasonable belief that Mr. Black presented a threat.”

Witnesses told police that Harper was at a party at a family member’s home nearby and may have been using drugs. Early that morning, he ran away and apparently broke down the Black family’s front door.

Harper had been released from the Denver County Jail after serving time for a misdemeanor robbery charge about 23 hours before the shooting, according to Young’s report. Witnesses told investigators the party near Black’s home was, in part, to celebrate Harper’s release from jail.

Black’s grandson told police he woke up after feeling a cold breeze. He described walking toward his father’s bedroom but then saw a stranger showering as he passed the open bathroom door.

The boy said the man grabbed him, locked the bathroom door and was strangling him before his father and grandfather were able to get inside the room.

Harper, who was 26, died after being shot twice in the chest by Black. An autopsy report found levels of marijuana and methamphetamine in his blood.

While releasing information that cleared Limbaugh in a June shooting of a gun-wielding suspect at an Aurora motel, investigators revealed it was the same officer, Limbaugh, a former Army sniper, who shot Black.

Arapahoe County district attorney officials said Limbaugh also used justified force that time when shooting to death Joey Bronson June 27 at the Biltmore Motel, 8900 E. Colfax Ave.

Investigators reporting on the Biltmore shooting said Limbaugh was among police who were called to the area after Bronson, 39, pulled out a handgun and fired it into the air. When officers arrived, they confronted Bronson, who was armed with a .380 handgun.

During a chase, officers yelled at Bronson to drop his gun. At one point, Bronson stopped, pointed his gun at Limbaugh and tried to fire, but the gun malfunctioned, according to DA investigators.

Limbaugh fired at him, killing him, according to the report.

Other officers and numerous body cam and other videos corroborated Limbaugh’s and other’s recollection of the event.

“Any police officer in that position would reasonably be in fear for his life and the lives of other officers, and would reasonably believe that firing his service weapon was necessary to defend himself and his fellow officers,” said Richard Orman, senior chief deputy district attorney, in his report. “The fact that Joey Bronson continued to point the gun in Officer Limbaugh’s direction even after he had been shot, and even as he was going to the ground, and while on the ground, constituted grounds for Officer Limbaugh to believe that it was necessary to keep shooting until the threat was mitigated.”

State Sen. Rhonda Fields said in August that she’s considering whether to prompt legislative inquiry into the length of time an officer is returned to duty after being involved in a shooting, and possibly legislation as well.