AURORA | Aurora’s police chief credited Aurora investigators as well as ICE and Homeland Security agents in quickly tracking down a Venezuelan immigrant accused of shooting his wife and her sister in front of five children early Sunday inside an Aurora apartment.
Investigators on Monday said they found and arrested Michel Jordan Castellano-Fonseca, 30, late Sunday, who they say shot and killed his 26-year-old sister-in-law and critically injured his wife at about 3 a.m. at Aurora Meadows apartments in the 1000 block of Cimarron Circle.
“The one thing that I really want to detail…is the foundation of the incident itself,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told reporters at a press conference Monday “This was a tragic loss of life. This event occurred by an individual who, quite frankly, should not have ever been in this country in the first place.”
Chamberlain repeatedly told reporters that Castellano-Fonseca was a Venezuelan immigrant and had “illegally” immigrated first to Florida and then to Aurora.
“So again, he came illegally into the country in 2023 and he never, at any time, filed for any type of legitimate process to get started into the process of becoming a citizen,” Chamberlain said. “And again, in Florida, sometimes he was picked up for a traffic violation issue and citation.”
Chamberlain didn’t release details of the traffic infraction, but also expanded on details of the Aurora crime, and how the suspect’s arrest unfolded.
“The preliminary investigation by APD’s Major Crime Homicide Unit suggests the shooting stemmed from a possible domestic violence incident, after which Castellano-Fonseca threatened to return to the apartment complex with a firearm,” Aurora Police spokesperson Joe Moylan said in a statement Sunday.
Chamberlain said local officers had contacted Castellano-Fonseca sometime last year on a previous domestic violence call, although there was no arrest nor follow-up from that incident.
On Saturday, Castellano-Fonseca was “high on cocaine” and inebriated, which may have been the crux of the domestic violence in his Aurora apartment Saturday, Chamberlain speculated.
At one point, Castellano-Fonseca left the apartment and called an acquaintance in order to find a gun, the chief said.
Police said he did that, meeting someone in a local park. From there, Castellano-Fonseca and the unidentified acquaintance drove near East Mississippi Avenue and South Chambers Street, and Castellano-Fonseca fired the gun from the car in “practice,” Chamberlain said.
He then returned to the Aurora apartment and muscled his way through the front door at about 3 a.m., which was answered by a 15-year-old girl living in the apartment with the two women and four other children.
“She tried to close the door. The suspect, he put his foot in the doorway, holding the door in place, and then he pushed the door completely open,” Chamberlain said. “The children and the women, in fear for their life, gathered and huddled together and tried to run into the bathroom. As they were running into the bathroom, the suspect followed those victims and then randomly shot two of them in the head, which included the wife and also the sister.”
His wife is in critical condition in a nearby hospital. Her sister died from the gunshot wound inside the apartment, Chamberlain said.
Castellano-Fonseca then left the apartment and drove away his car.
“None of the children were injured during the shooting,” Moylan said.
Castellano-Fonseca left the scene in a green Acura MDX SUV bearing a Colorado license plate, CV0668.
Castellano-Fonseca was captured a hours later after police asked for the public’s help in finding him, saying he was ”considered armed and dangerous,” Moylan said.
Chamberlain said police used community surveillance technology to search for license plates matching what they knew about Castellano-Fonseca. Eventually they did and began tracking him down.
Police said they encountered him in a nearby Taco Bell parking lot eating.
“This was a tragic loss of life.,” Chamberlain said. “This event occurred by an individual who, quite frankly, should not have ever been in this country in the first place.”
Chamberlain said the immigration agents’ help was critical to finding Castellano-Fonseca, but he did not detail how.
Chamberlain said it appeared all of the residents in the apartment are Venezuelan immigrants. He was unsure what their status was and would be, only that local victim services were working with them.
“This is something that came together, unfortunately for a very bad event, but came together with a positive conclusion,” Chamberlain said. “And the conclusion is that this individual who should not have been in this country in the first place, this individual who should not have been involved in the crimes that he was committing, who has demonstrated a pattern of violence, demonstrated a pattern of neglect towards those he cared for and supposedly loved, is no longer on the streets and he is now in custody. “
The chief said he did not know at the time of the press conference how ICE would interact with the family or Castellano-Fonseca as charges and the case moved forward.
“Right now, he has to go through his due process,” Chamberlain said.
He said there were bigger implications from the case for Aurora, and for the state.
Chamberlain talked about the “huge influx” of immigrants, in Aurora and across the United States and how local police are managing the immigrant population surge over the past two years.
Of the tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who came across the Texas border, many of them were bused to Denver by Texas state officials. Denver housed many of the immigrants for months, and they since have dispersed across the metro area, an undetermined number into Aurora.
“What are the ones that came here for a better life, and what are the ones that came here to cause crime and to cause havoc?” Chamberlain said. “That is, that is the direction that we are trying to figure out.”
He said state lawmakers and Attorney General Phil Weiser, who has held police accountable to state laws restricting how they interact with federal immigration agents, and especially since Trump returned to office, promising mass deportations, have caused problems for local law enforcement. He referred to recent news that Weiser has sued three sheriff deputies across the state for providing information to ICE agents about police suspects.
“I think right now in Colorado again, we have the right with individuals involved in criminal activity, to be involved in that relationship and to work with federal, state and local partners,” Chamberlain said.
He said that police are fearful of Wesier’s office. Weiser declined to comment on the chief’s remarks.
“Officers specifically feel like, well, I don’t want to be judged on the information that I’m providing, because I’m not sure if I’m going to get hung up by the attorney general,” he said. “And then when you see incidents that occur in other parts of Colorado where officers, that have passed information trying to get an individual that they believe is involved in criminal activity, and then ultimately get penalized for that. That’s a challenge.”
Whether or not APD furthers their investigation to deep dive into Castellano’s time as a resident that’s pertinent background is up for grabs. It should not surprise anyone to find out he and other Venezuelan migrants were encouraged to move to Aurora Meadows by nonprofits. But the bigger picture that played into all this is now fair game and open for criminal investigation. There seems a clear pattern and connection here. Do these Aurora politicians have the stomach to really find out what was feeding this. CM Jurinsky, figured out how this worked, Gov Polis amazingly refused to. Will this be similar and akin to the CBZ apartment stronghold of criminals where the Venezuelans dominated the place?
Weiser was responsible for the witch hunt that followed the death of Elijah McClain. When you prosecute everyone, including the fire personnel, for anyone to blame, it definitely helps to paralyze the police and even the fire rescue people. The few convictions that came from that prosecution had little to do with causing his death and more to do with who can we blame when we don’t really know why he died. So, one officer and one fire person became political prisoners that enhanced the career of a politician (Weiser). Weiser, who has no criminal law background, advanced a consent decree in Aurora that had no basis in fact and has impossible goals. We cannot let politicians endanger everyone so they can look good politically.
Absolutely ridiculous that local law enforcement is prohibited from coordinating with ICE to apprehend and detain criminals. Seriously? Lives are at stake here. Our state legislature has gone too far. We need a change in state government in the next election.
We need more cooperation with the Federal government to get these illegal aliens sent home now!!