AURORA | Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, in a social media video post, publicly proposed a charity ring fight with local activist MiDian Shofner, after an interaction between the two last week.
“MiDian, if you don’t meet me in the ring, I better never hear my name ever come out of your mouth again,” Jurinsky said in the video. “The ball is in her court, and I mean, that’s with all respect, it would be a sanctioned event.”
She was met with a sharp rebuke and a counter-proposal: a dance-off.
Whether in earnest or jest, the throwdown is the latest skirmish between some members of the Aurora City Council and family members and activists linked to the police shooting of Kilyn Lewis last year.
For months, Shofner and others have appeared at city council meetings, demanding that the city fire Aurora SWAT officer Michael Dieck, who fatally shot Kilyn Lewis during his arrest at an Aurora apartment last year. An outside police investigative team and a former district attorney both said that Dieck’s actions were not criminal in shooting Lewis. Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said Dieck’s actions did not violate APD policy.
“I fight for two reasons,” Shofner said. “I fight for protection and I fight for justice for my people. I don’t fight for charity. I don’t fight for fun.”
Sometime Monday, a video of Jurinsky was posted on Jeff Fard’s, aka Brother Jeff, Facebook page where the council member said that in response to something Shofner said to her, she had to think it through and “she wanted to set it up.”
“I want to know my dear, you meet me in the ring or what, because I’m ready to go,” Jurinsky said into the camera, speaking to Shofner. “How long do you need? You don’t get to just run your mouth anymore. You say you’re from Montbello. Back it up. Let’s go. Let’s fight for charity.”
The small clip was taken down from Fard’s Facebook almost immediately, and then it was announced he would release the whole video the next day with Shofner live to watch it with him during his livestreamed show on Facebook.
Jurinsky told the Sentinel that this is all in reference to an interaction she had with Shofner last week. She said on Wednesday when she was holding a candidate meet and greet event for multiple city council candidates at her bar JJ’s Place, including herself. Shofner showed up to protest, and while she was telling Shofner to get off the property and was walking toward her to show Shofner where the property line was, she said Shofner told her she would “find out” what would happen to her if she took one more step.
In the video, Jurinsky said she had to “play it in her head what happened.” She said it was in reference to Shofner making several comments about her wanting to fight Jurinsky, as she interpreted the exchange in the bar parking lot.
On the show in the longer cut of the video, Jurinsky said she asked Shofner and the people who came with her to leave her property. The group, including Shofner, said Jurinsky was a renter and didn’t own the property. Jurinsky said, “want to bet?” and started walking toward her with her hand out in a betting gesture. Both women told the story similarly, while Shofner said she found the gesture threatening.
“I told her if she kept approaching me with her hand out, I’m going to take that as a threat,” Shofner said on the show. “She stopped abruptly in her tracks, because I’m assuming she understood what it is that I said.”
Shofner said, Jurinsky stopped and put her hand down like Shofner asked, and then she asked Shofner, “Or what?”
“Put your hand back up and you’ll see,” Shofner said she told Jurinsky.
In the video, Jurinsky does not specify what Shofner said to her, but implies that Shofner said something that gave her the impression she wanted to fight, so when she took a minute to think about it later she decided to call Fard and make it happen, in a ring, for charity.
Shofner said she isn’t interested in throwing punches.
“There’s community out here trying to do interventions for young people,” she said. “And you and I getting into a boxing ring for a charity match where I can guarantee violence, I’m not sure our young people are going to see that as conflict resolution.”
Jurinsky told the Sentinel that the idea of a charity boxing match is not unusual. She said A1 boxing does a lot of youth programs in Aurora to keep the youth productive and off the street. She said that the idea to fight was not hers in the first place, but a direct response to “take her up on her offer to find out what happens if I take one more step towards her, and not to dance.”
Jurinsky said that Shofner and the rest of her group have been singling her out and she’s felt attacked for a while through comments about her appearance, calls for boycotts on her business and other threats of violence. Although Shofner has never publicly called for boycotts or threatened violence, some of her supporters have.
“She’s trying to create some ring to meet me in,” Shofner said on the show. “News flash, Danielle, you’ve been in the ring with me this whole time. I’ve been fighting for justice, and you’ve been running from it.”
Shofner said she was not only dismissive of the violence but said she was insulted by Jurinsky’s use of coded language that reinforced stereotypes.
“The racist rhetoric is very evident,” Shofner said, referring to Jurinsky’s implication that Montbello is a place where people grow up to fight, and her vocalization change, which she said could be considered a form of cultural appropriation.
“Instead of offering dialogue, she wanted to offer violence,” Shofner said. “Because charity or not, fighting is violent.”
Shofner said that the notion of controlled violence within rules reminded her of broader issues with police force.
“The City of Aurora continues to struggle with their outlook on how violence and force is used,” she said. “And it’s no wonder we continue to have the outcomes that we do, because Danielle is the leader of public safety.”
In response to the implication that her comments about Montbello were racially insensitive, Jurinsky maintained that she was responding to Shofner’s own words and demeanor and had police officers present at the event due to intel suggesting a protest might occur.
Jurinsky said she got permission from the city attorney to conduct the fight, while City Attorney Pete Schulte said he never gave specific permission for a fight between the two women.
“Due to my role as city attorney, I cannot discuss specifically what Councilmember Jurinsky and I discussed,” Schulte said in a statement. “But I can say that neither the city nor I are involved or have endorsed and/or sanctioned any event discussed by Councilmember Jurinsky in this video.”
Rather than boxing it out, Shofner issued a counter-proposal during Fard’s livestream, “Let’s dance.”
She said that a dance-off would offer a nonviolent alternative, and that any event should benefit a charity of her choosing.
“Danielle, if you are willing, then you would have to do all the heavy lifting,” Shofner said. “I’m not helping no damn police. If you are willing, under the stipulation that the proceeds go to the charity of my choice and my choice only, let’s dance.”
With a more recent wave of youth violence in Denver and Aurora, Shofner said adults should be leading with integrity.
“We have young people who are showing us they are in need of leadership,” she said. “What the time calls for is for us to take our responsibility with integrity and not take it lightly.”
Jurinsky told the Sentinel she would decline the dance-off.
Imagine being enough of a fool to ask the City Attorney for advice on whether you, a Councilmember, can legally fight an annoying activist citizen for charity because you are annoyed with that citizen. If this actually became a thing I think I could take Councilmember Bergan and Mayor Coffman.
This stupid video of Jurinski all puffed up to fight instead of indulging in constructive dialogue is the prime example I’m calling for her ouster from the City Council! In the video, she acts like a juvenile ready to meet behind the bleachers. We need a serious group of Councilpersons to solve Aurora’s issues, not create them.
Disappointed she turned down a dance battle for charity—clearly it was never about unity or a good cause. I just hope the community takes note and votes accordingly this November.
The exchange between Councilmember Jurinsky and community advocate MiDian Shofner is deeply troubling, not only because of the nature of the proposed “charity fight,” but because it reflects a larger issue of leadership conduct during a time when our community is demanding accountability, compassion, and meaningful engagement. While disagreements and tensions are inevitable in public life, resorting to performative conflict undermines public trust and distracts from the critical issues at hand—namely, justice, youth violence prevention, and systemic reform.
Ms. Shofner is correct in her assertion that young people need to see adults modeling nonviolent, solution-oriented behavior. Conflict resolution should not come in the form of sanctioned violence or sensationalism. Instead, our leaders must rise to the occasion by fostering spaces for open dialogue, mutual understanding, and collaborative problem-solving. Aurora deserves leadership grounded in integrity and emotional maturity—not spectacle.
Danielle Jurinsky is a clown. An embarrassment to the city.
A black radical lady, with generally violent rhetoric, raised in Montbello, wants a innocuous sounding “dance off” instead of a fist fight because as she states, “I’m not a violent person”. Give me a break!
Then right back in true form she states, “Danielle, if you are willing, then you would have to do all the heavy lifting. I’m not helping no damn police. If you are willing, under the stipulation that the proceeds go to the charity of MY choice and MY CHOICE ONLY.” You know, Aurora Citizens, you have heard it before, gimmy, gimmy, gimmy, then give me some more. You owe me.
Then she goes on and states that adults should be leading with integrity implying she is the adult instead of our elected Council person. Again, give me a break after listening to her for over a year. Yes, please, give me a break.
MiDian, the child abuser and Tay, the pedophile make threats for over a year now and then run when Jurinsky says then let’s fight for charity.
Sentinel, do a better job of telling the whole story.
I’m willing to pay $100 for a ring side seat to see Rocky IV. I’m unwilling to spend two cents for some Woke driven warmed-over Saturday Night Fever.