Aurora police chief said immigrant couple ‘tortured’ by gang in infamous apartment complex

AURORA | An unidentified man and woman police say appear to be Venezuelan immigrants were brutally terrorized by gang members at the same Aurora apartment complex that has become internationally infamous because of a viral video and multiple crimes.

“They were pistol whipped. They were beaten,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. “One of the victims was actually stabbed. He had a stab wound. So does that fall in the category of torture? For me, yeah, it does.”

Police said 15 people have been “detained” from a single apartment in the complex as investigators sort out who they think was involved in the attack.

Investigators said they are working to determine who among the 15 people confronted by police are connected to the brutal treatment of the two immigrants.

Chamberlain relayed a lurid story to the media about two Venezuelan immigrants who “courageously” contacted police for help after apparently armed gang members broke into their northwest Aurora apartment, kidnapped them, about 9 p.m. Monday night, and took them to a vacant unit in the Edge of Lowry apartment complex at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street.

There, an undisclosed number of people “tortured” the couple until about 2 a.m., Chamberlain and police spokespersons said.

The couple promised their attackers they would not tell police and were allowed to leave.

They left the building, went to the home of friends and called the police to report the attack.

“The fact that they stepped forward, I think it shows again the incredible amount of courage that they had,” Chamberlain said. “I cannot tell them how much I am thankful that they had the courage to do that.”

The couple both received non-life-threatening injuries during the attack and are being treated at a hospital.

Chamberlain said police are offering protection for the couple now and going forward as the case unfolds.

While the investigation is just underway, Chamberlain said it appeared the couple were attacked and robbed by other immigrants, who were likely gang members.

He said police could not at this time determine whether attackers or others inside the apartment were linked to the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua. The TdA gang has been the focus of anti-immigrant politics in Aurora, and across the country, culminating in a Donald Trump rally in Aurora in October.

“I don’t know which gang they are affiliated with yet. It might be TdA. It could not be TdA,” Chamberlain said. “It is incredibly hard to identify suspects specifically as TdA because there are no specific markers.”

The buildings are said to be closed off by police, but residents can still come and go, according to Chamberlain. V Reeves, a Housekeys Action Network Denver representative, said that some residents reported being required to stay inside their apartments and were unable to leave for work or any other reason. 

Aurora Police responded by saying that access is restricted to some units while waiting for search warrants to access them. Otherwise, residents can come and go, but there are restrictions on hanging out in the courtyard.

Reeves also said some people detained for questioning were taken to an ICE detention facility operated by GEO Group Inc. in Aurora, which Moylan confirmed.

“The 14 people detained at the scene have been taken to multiple locations for questioning,” he said in an email. “Some have gone to an ICE office. Others have been taken to our district offices.”

Chamberlain said during the press conference that the police department was working with ICE and other federal agencies in the  investigation to determine whether suspects are members of gangs or have other outstanding criminal warrant issues.

Reeves said that families in the complex told her that eight of the detained suspects are innocent and being held, while police stated they are questioning all 15 people they encountered to determine who was involved in the attack.

The complex has long been plagued by a multitude of crime and health and safety problems, Chamberlain said. Despite the strict measures taken during the police search and securing of the complex, Chamberlain emphasized the importance of immigrants feeling safe to report crimes without fear of deportation or retaliation.

Chamberlain and other police officials have repeatedly said immigrants are easy targets for criminals because they generally will not report crime to police for fear of deportation or further abuse by police.

Chamberlain said the complex has long been plagued by a multitude of crime and healthy and safety problems. 

He, and other city officials, have repeatedly placed blame on apartment complex owners CBZ for mismanagement that created a magnet for crime and abuse of tenants.

City officials say owners allowed the building to become riddled with vermin, garbage and other health and safety issues.

“I’ve been there. It’s squalor,” Chamberlain said. “There’s nobody in this room that would live like that right now.”

Chamberlain also criticized federal and other government officials for essentially allowing thousands of immigrants to flood the community with little or no resources to care for themselves, easily becoming victims to all kinds of scams, crime and misfortune.

“We’re talking about possibly 40,000 Venezuelans, many of whom were brought into the City of Aurora and dropped into it,” Chamberlain said. “You’re basically talking about a small city that was dropped into a large city.”

And the small city brought big-city crime problems with it, he said.

The apartment complex was the site of a shooting and now infamous viral video, showing armed men, alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, entering an apartment, Minutes after the security video was taken, a fatal shooting outside the complex occurred.

Most recently, residents in the buildings, many of whom are Venezuelan immigrants, are facing eviction as the buildings are in jeopardy of being shuttered depending on the outcome of an agreement between the City of Aurora and CBZ.

The proceedings will continue in January, which could result in a 30-day notice to leave. City officials have threatened to close the building, a move they did similarly in a nearby apartment complex facing similar issues, and owned, also, by CBZ.

Chamberlain said that despite the most recent criminal development, police will continue focusing additional resources on the building and the area as the future of the complex unfolds.

He repeatedly said that although the incident was horrific, the area has been plagued by crime problems for many years, and that, at the same time, the “pockets” of problems aren’t indicative of the neighborhoods surrounding the buildings. 

Responding to allegations made by some city council members, and even President-Elect Donald Trump, that the Venezuelan gangs are especially dangerous and adding a new element of crisis to the area, Chamberlain pushed back.

“This is not an example that Aurora is a gang infested, drug infested, crime infested city,” the apartment building and the immediate neighborhood are “hot spots,”  similar to places in other large cities.

 “As Chief Chamberlain said, Aurora, like every other major city across the country, must tackle crime – especially concentrated pockets of crime – aggressively,” Mayor Mike Coffman said in a statement. “But as I have said repeatedly, specific bad actors and problematic properties do not reflect on this city as a whole.”

Some local and state officials have accused police and other city officials of purposely downplaying the severity of the issue, even saying Venezuelan gang problems in the area aren’t an issue.

“I think the mere fact that you’re here, the mere fact that we’re talking about a location that I don’t know how many months ago, seven months ago, eight months ago, or whatever was on national news, and we’re still talking about the same subject, it is 100% an issue,” he said. “Whether it’s TDA, whether it’s rolling 60s or any other gang that’s around here. That’s the problem. BThe fact that there’s people that are being hurt and victimized.”

After the police chief statement, Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky told reporters that she’s now pleased with the actions of the police department and Chief Chamberlain. Previously harshly critical of police administration, she said Chamberlain, who joined the force in August, is more transparent about what police are doing and more aggressive in enforcement.

Chamberlain said police are prepared to lean into the northwest Aurora issue, first arresting anyone they deem was responsible for this attack.

“We are not shying away from the problem,” he said. “We are owning the problem, and we are going to fix the problem.”

City officials also laid blame on the owners of the Edge at Lowry complex, saying mismanagement allowed for a variety of criminal and safety issues to fester.

The attack “underscores, with painful clarity, why the city has been aggressively leading criminal and civil legal actions against the private property owners, managers and/or “investors” of CBZ Management and their various LLCs,” city spokesperson Ryan Luby said in an statement. “Their chosen absence and abject neglect of their own properties for years, and their pattern of ignoring and rejecting the city’s various offers to expedite a resolution in recent months, have, in part, created an environment that has allowed criminal activity to flourish time and again irrespective of who is committing the crimes.”