AURORA | A former Denver school board member who frequently chastises Aurora lawmakers at their council meetings wants Aurora’s mayor to apologize for a verbal dust-up Monday night.
Mayor Mike Coffman dismissed the allegations by former Denver Public Schools board vice-president Auon’tai Anderson as melodramatics.
Anderson said Coffman confronted him at the end of Monday’s Aurora City Council meeting as they and dozens of other people in the audience were walking out of council chambers. Anderson has circulated a curated video depicting the heated verbal exchange between himself and Coffman.
In Anderson’s curated video, and an unedited version here, Coffman can be heard spontaneously shouting at Anderson about the 2023 death of a Denver high school student.
“The mayor utilized his position of power to intimidate and attack me to the point where another council member had to forcefully remove the mayor from my face,” Auon’tai Anderson said.
While the video shows Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky apparently guiding Coffman away from the altercation, he did not appear to resist her, and her actions did not appear “forceful.”
The conflict happened shortly after a series of heated public comments from a group of people who regularly attend the city council meetings to offer criticism about the police-shooting death of Kilyn Lewis. Lewis was fatally shot by Aurora police SWAT officer Michael Diek during Lewis’ arrest last May. The group, often led by Anderson, has held city council protests, has for months regularly been fiercely critical of the city council in regards to Lewis’ death, sometimes protesting and making emotional, sometimes profane and personal comments. On more than one occasion, city council meetings were suspended when the mayor could not force the crowd to relent.
As people were leaving the council chamber Monday, the mayor walked through the crowd and, from the perspective of the video, walked directly to Anderson, shouting the name “Austin Lyle.”
“Austin Lyle,” Coffman said. “Say his name. You killed him.”
“Say his name” is a common refrain by Black rights activists invoked during criticism of lethal police brutality.
Lyle, a student at East High School, fatally shot himself in 2023 after shooting two administrators at East High. At the time, Anderson was the vice president of the Denver Public Schools Board. He had lobbied hard to remove School Resource Officers from all schools, insisting that police in schools too often harass and arrest students of color. After the Lyle shooting and another student-shooting incident at the school in 2024, the no-SRO policy in DPS schools came under fierce criticism, and was eventually reversed. Numerous critics blamed the lack of police at East High for the shootings and other school violence.
For months, however, Anderson and other Lewis protesters have inferred or outright said that city lawmakers in Aurora are responsible for the death of Lewis because of errant city police and a lack of reform, they blame on the Aurora City Council.
On Monday, after Coffman’s shout at Anderson, someone stepped in between the two as Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky appeared to pull the mayor away toward the door. Coffman then walked to the elevator with an officer following him as Coffman kept shouting, “You killed him. You killed that young Black man.”
It’s unclear what provoked the mayor to confront Anderson since they have never publicly spoken one-on-one or seemed to have any significant personal issues, Anderson said.
After almost a full hour of public comment toward the end of the three-hour meeting on Monday, a speaker took to the dais and harshly shouted at the city council, at times profanely. It seemed to provoke the mayor to adjourn the meeting immediately when the speaker finished.
It was initially unclear what provoked the mayor to confront Anderson since they had never spoken one-on-one or seemed to have any significant personal issues, Anderson said.
On Thursday, Coffman posted on Facebook that he had used his “outdoor voice” to address Anderson and linked Lyle’s death to a lack of officers on school campuses. Coffman said Anderson moved to Aurora to “start over,” possibly politically, a claim Anderson denied, stating he isn’t running for any office in Aurora. The mayor announced he would hold “a moment of silence for Lyle” at the next council meeting, which Anderson criticized, noting no similar gesture was made for Kilyn Lewis.
Multiple people said Coffman ended the meeting prematurely. City officials said after that was not the case. Public comments are limited to one hour, according to city council rules. The profane speaker finished at the end of the hour. Seven speakers were remaining signed up to address the city council, according to city officials.
Although the last person to speak is part of the same group of people who attended with Anderson, there didn’t seem to be any other connection to him.
The public comment portion of council meetings often becomes aggressive and hostile with profanities and personal attacks aimed at members of city council. Monday night appeared less hostile than usual, besides the fact that public comment was moved to the end of the meeting instead of the beginning, which clearly frustrated members of the group.
Anderson said on Tuesday that of all the many and frequent speeches he usually gives to city council, this one was more “lackluster.”
“I literally started with that negro spiritual,” Anderson said. “I gave some stats, and I said, we’re tired of moving the goalpost. And that was the end of my remarks, and I left singing.”
The Monday council meeting immediately followed a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in the lobby outside of council chambers, where attendees, including Anderson, sang “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” which inspired Anderson to sing it during his speech.
On Tuesday, Coffman dismissed Anderson’s video as curated and said in a statement that he “does not forfeit his ability to express his opinion just because he is an elected leader.”
The mayor’s statement said that his position is that Anderson is attempting to make a “mountain out of a molehill.”
“He was expressing an opinion about Mr. Anderson’s past actions on the Denver school board,” the statement said. “Mayor Coffman also said he is not going to spend any more time on this manufactured nonissue.”
Councilmember Jurinsky agreed with the statement and said Coffman did not “attack” anyone.
Anderson insists that he did take it as an attack. He said the fact that the mayor forced him into closed-quarters shouting put him and the rest of the public in danger. He said the exchange could easily have escalated among the crowd had he chosen to engage with Coffman.
“The mayor’s actions were reckless,” Anderson said. “They made me fear for my safety, and any citizen should now be afraid about what the mayor of Aurora could potentially be doing when he has a difference of opinion with him and how he’s going to utilize his power and position around law enforcement to express his own political views to those who he has differencing opinions with. And that’s just scary.”
He said that with how quickly an Aurora police officer shot Kilyn Lewis for grabbing his cell phone, it’s impossible to know what would have happened if Anderson had grabbed his own cell phone to record the exchange on Monday. Lewis was being pursued by police for an attempted homicide in Denver and was fatally shot by an Aurora officer May 23 while reaching for his phone in his back pocket. The officer who shot Lewis said he thought the phone was a gun.
Anderson insists the incident warrants an apology from the mayor. He also wants the mayor to be censured by the city council, and he asks that the mayor is no longer allowed to attend Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations in Aurora.
I never thought I’d see Danielle Jurinsky defuse a situation. Coffman, and others, have cause to be upset about Austin Lyle and there is a direct link between his death and the policies Auon’tai championed (we shouldn’t ask school administrators to check backpacks for guns). Still, Coffman had an embarrassing senior moment and it reflected poorly on him and the City.
that last part? REFLECTED POORLY ON HIM AND THE CITY? is right on.
One hopes that elected leaders are calm, compassionate, articulate and kind and caring to their constituents. This city council is none of those things.
How about the constituents be calm, compassionate, articulate and kind and caring instead of acting like they just wandered out of the jungle??
So, a racial slur from you Johnathan, so American of you and probably a patriot as well. Have you ever heard of the French Revolution? Check it out…here….here’s a link for you.
The French Revolution was a watershed event in world history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. During this period, French citizens radically altered their political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as the monarchy and the feudal system. The upheaval was caused by disgust with the French aristocracy and the economic policies of King Louis XVI, who met his death by guillotine, as did his wife Marie Antoinette.
“Have you ever heard of the French Revolution? ”
Have you ever heard of the Thermidorean Reaction? And stop with the appeals to patriotism, your side doesn’t even like this country.
Oh please. Anderson is such a blowhard looking for his next 15 minutes of “fame.” Clearly he’s looking to Aurora as Denver wants nothing to do with him. Rightfully so. Aurorans dont want him either! Good for our Mayor finally standing up to him.
I agree! Auon’tai is extermely problematic and an agent of chaos! He is using the black people in Aurora to exploit situations for his own gain. No place is perfect, but Aurora being a diverse city and unlike some city leaders, our city leaders are trying to do the best. The lack of disrespect is insane and will not accomplish anything if people are disruptive. I’m glad Mayor Coffman and the rest of the council will not bow down to these crazy Denverites!
I couldn’t agree more. I support Mayor Coffman for attempting to put this idiot in his place. At least the incompetent DPS school board reversed the decision to remove SRO’s. If anything DPS needs them the most.
“Anderson … asks that the mayor is no longer allowed to attend Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations in Aurora.” This is proof positive that Anderson has zero respect for the law or anyone’s constitutional rights unless they agree with him and cave to his demands.
Kudos to Council for doing their best to manage this circus. I’d cut the 10-minute time to vacate council chambers to 90 seconds and add some mandatory jail time for anyone who willfully obstructs a council meeting outside the time permitted for public comment. Throw the f-ing book at clowns like Anderson.
“This is proof positive that Anderson has zero respect for the law or anyone’s constitutional rights unless they agree with him and cave to his demands.”
He’s a practitioner of Marcuse’s “liberating tolerance” just like the rest of his theological brethren. No different than Little Timmy Hernandez screeching like a spastic at public meeting with the police chief a few months ago.
Hey, you sound a lot like me.
apparently none of you posters looked at the video I just looked at. Coffman instigated the confrontation himself! He could have kept quiet and gone on about his business. Even the cop was corraling him when Coffman was getting on the elevator. So Please…..and a black man who doesn’t represent the black community? GIVE ME A BREAK. Any normal council would sit down with these leaders and come to some kind of understanding. Not this council though.
What, in your estimation, makes these persons leaders? Is it their rejection of the conclusions of multiple investigations into the death? Their rejection of the facts of leading up to the death? Their desire to cash in on the death? Their repetitive disruption and interference with the legislative operation long after their position has been heard ad nauseum and they have nothing new to offer other than obstrucvtion for obstructions sake?
As for Coffman, yes, he has always been a petty little fellow of limited perspicacity. He lacks the emotional control of a three-year old.
LOL, you’re not fooling anyone with that astroturf, Tay-Tay. Take your giant cantaloupe head back to Park Hill where it belongs.
I find 95% of these comments hilarious, and the fact that the Sentinel is framing the video as “curated”, and mentioned it twice, is troubling to me as someone who donates to this publication. The part showing the interaction between Anderson and Coffman is the only newsworthy part of the video, that part is completely and obviously UNcurated, in the way the writer means it.
And btw: I absolutely love how when civil rights activists protest police brutality and unnecessary shootings, the retort is to bring up policies that were formed by DPS as a result of the George Floyd murder by, you guessed it, police. The real issue that NOONE talks about: how in the hell does a teenager get access to a gun in the first place when he’s not old enough in the state of Colorado to purchase one? How in the hell are his parents, the most likely answer to how that kid got the gun, not being held more accountable? And if the policies failed that resulted in that tragedy, why is there not being more emphasis on mental health in our schools? Are you telling me NOONE saw the signs this kid was troubled, and moved to get him help BEFORE he murdered two innocent adults, then turned the gun on himself?
Im sorry, but this is where I draw the line: politicizing human tragedy is not okay, and guess what: especially if Anderson is EVERYTHING the comments says he is, then that is proof enough that a sitting mayor of the second most populous city in Colorado would be the BETTER MAN, you’d like to think that an elected official would take the higher ground. He didn’t, and that’s the real issue here. Anderson is a former elected official. Mike Coffman IS an elected official. But like everything else everyone is concerned with, keep being distracted by the ancillary.
Anderson, Shofner, and the rest of these leeches are nothing more than grifters trying to agitate their way to a municipal payday by preying on the black community. Their respective non-profits are cover for the scam.
Mike Coffman has systematically isolated himself from the opinions of his constituents, creating a bubble that has left him out of touch with the community, including many conservative individuals. It is disheartening to feel dismissed and ignored when attempting to share relevant data or opinions on important city matters. The behavior exhibited by the mayor, as detailed in this article, is toxic and disconnected from reality.
It would be prudent for Mayor Coffman to break free from his protective bubble and re-engage with the majority of the public. Some community members, due to their commitments, can only communicate through the call-in line. There are ways to facilitate this communication without tolerating vulgarity. I urge our leadership to explore these options and prioritize open dialogue with all constituents.
Remember when professionals were held to a higher standard? As an elected official, it is prudent to interact with the public as a professional officeholder. I’ve watched this council over the years and the majority does not have a professional in the bunch. The fact that Jurinski tried to lead the mayor out of the building tells you everything you need to know about this council, especially after her incendiary comments about nonissues! The city is run by clowns!
Not only the city but in three days the clowns take over Washington D.C. and wo be unto us all. You think things are awful? Just wait. The discrimination against anyone other then the white, christian, heterosexuals is gonna be a sight to see. Those Democrats who didn’t bother to vote? Those who chose to vote for a third party to protest? This you brought on yourself. Enjoy the next 4 years.
Yes, we know how much your side hates white Christian heterosexuals.
Coffman once again shows true color by Running from any confrontation , just like the VA hospital situation. Lets not forget his time in congress. Coffman is great at RUNNING; for office, for money, for corporate America, from accountability for police violence anything to protect the white privileged of our society.
True GOP, Grumpy Old Prejudice party. 🙁
Tay Tay is a disgraced predator who was censured and voted out of office. Anderson had inappropriate interactions with a 16 year old student. Tay Tay has ZERO moral high ground to stand on. This clown is a farce.