AURORA | A teenager admitted to detectives that he murdered an Aurora couple while trying to rob them in a residential neighborhood last month, newly released court documents reveal.
Kyree Brown, 18, told investigators with the Aurora Police Department that he shot and killed Joseph and Jossline Roland using a 9 mm handgun on Aug. 14 moments before he stole cash out of their Honda Pilot parked near 11763 E. Cornell Circle, according to an affidavit filed against Brown. The affidavit was sealed shortly after it was filed, though the district attorney’s office has since permitted the release of a redacted version of the document.
Earlier in the day on Aug. 14, Joseph Roland had contacted Brown on the resale app LetGo in response to a car Brown had listed on the site for $5,000. Investigators learned that Brown had stolen the car, a 2017 Toyota RAV4, in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood five days earlier.
Jospeh’s eldest daughter later told detectives that he buys and refurbishes used cars for a living.
Brown and Joseph eventually agreed to meet at Aurora’s Southlands shopping center to exchange the vehicle, according to the arrest document. Joseph’s daughter was supposed to accompany him on the outing, but Jossline eventually went with him instead, the girl told investigators.
Once at Southlands, Brown said he had mistakenly brought the wrong vehicle title and asked Joseph and Jossline to follow him to his home to get the correct document. They then tailed Brown across most of Aurora before arriving on East Cornell Circle. Brown then parked behind the couple, approached the driver’s side window wielding a handgun and demanded Joseph give him the cash he had brought with him to pay for the RAV4. Joseph then grabbed Brown’s arm through the window, at which point the teenager fired several shots into the car, striking both Joseph and Jossline.
They were both pronounced dead at the Medical Center of Aurora less than an hour later.
More than 700 people have contributed to a GoFundMePage dedicated to raising funds for the Roland’s five surviving children. The page has raised more than $82,000 in recent weeks.
Joseph and Jossline’s respective employers, ABM Industries and the Law Offices of Dianne Sawaya, have also indicated plans to establish trusts on behalf of the Roland children, according to Aurora Police.
Brown later told police that he fled the scene with several thousand dollars, drove the stolen car to north Aurora and lit it on fire. It was found a short time later and taken to the city’s local impound facility.
Aurora police spent several days combing through extensive cell phone records and requesting the release of additional information from LetGo, Google and phone companies in an effort to locate the suspected gunman.
Detectives linked Brown to the crime after unlocking Joseph’s cellphone and finding the messages he had exchanged with Brown via LetGo. Representatives from the app confirmed Brown’s gmail address to detectives, who then contacted Google and requested an “emergency disclosure of the account information,” according to the affidavit. Google heeded the request, which allowed investigators to trace Brown’s cell phone movements.
Police eventually tracked Brown’s phone to a shed near Elmira Street in the late afternoon on Aug. 27. When police tried to contact him, he and another man tried to flee the scene in a Dodge Ram truck. Officers then chased the vehicle before both men were apprehended in northeast Denver.
Brown admitted to the shooting in an interview with detectives a short time later.
He is currently being held without bond at the Arapahoe County jail, according to county records. He also faces a pair of misdemeanor fugitive of justice offenses from additional cases filed when he was a juvenile in 2018 and 2019.
Brown is scheduled to appear in district court to be formally advised of the murder charges recommended against him at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 3.