AURORA | A man convicted of shooting a handgun at several people, including two Aurora police officers, during a crime spree in Aurora last spring was sentenced to more than three decades in prison Tuesday in Adams County District Court.
An Adams County District Court Judge sentenced Tyrell Jones, 32, to 32 years in prison for shooting at Aurora police officers, his girlfriend and a taxi driver on April 8 and April 9 last year.
Jones pleaded guilty to first-degree assault as part of a plea deal.
He had previously been charged with a host of other crimes, including multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Jones began his violent spree on April 8, when he fired a 9mm semi-automatic pistol at his girlfriend, Jennifer Arellano-Jones, multiple times during an argument.
At one point during the dispute, Jones forced Arellano-Joines to drive at gunpoint from Federal Heights to an Aurora 7-Eleven. Once at the convenience store near Interstate 225 and East Iliff Avenue, Arellano-Jones fled the area in a car while Jones again fired at her from outside of the vehicle, according to the DA’s office.
Arellano-Jones then coordinated with Aurora police investigators to set up a “fictitious meeting location” with Jones where police could arrest him. Officers planned to meet Jones at the Crosslands Motel near Interstate 70 and Chambers Road.
Arellano-Jones told police Jones had told her, “that if officers were to come after him, he was going to shoot at them,” according to the DA’s office.
Jones arrived at the motel on April 9 in a taxi, according to the DA’s office. A slew of undercover Aurora police officers were waiting for him in the area.
Jones briefly waited at the motel while texting Arellano-Jones, but quickly left after growing impatient. He threatened to go to Arellano-Jones’ mother’s house and “shoot it up,” according to the DA’s office.
Jones and a taxi driver then left the motel in a taxicab. The driver, Mengistu Helamo, fled the vehicle when it was stopped at a red light near the railroad crossing at Chambers Road and Smith Road.
Aurora Officers Michael Dieck and Paul Jerothe then approached the car and realized Jones had a gun. The officers heard one shot fired from inside the taxi.
Dieck then fired several rounds from an M-4 rifle into the back of the vehicle, striking Jones several times. Jones survived the shooting despite suffering multiple gunshot wounds and undergoing “several surgeries,” according to the DA’s office.
Adams County District Attorney Dave Young later exonerated Dieck of any wrongdoing in the incident.
Jerothe, who did not fire his weapon during the incident, faced criticism several years ago after he shot an unarmed man on an Aurora street. Jerothe, a 13-year-veteran of the department, also received commendations for his heroism the night of the Aurora theater shooting in 2012.