Police clear Aurora officer of wrongdoing in fatal shooting of Kilyn Lewis

AURORA | The Aurora police officer who fatally shot Kilyn Lewis did not violate police policy when he fired his gun during Lewis’ arrest in May, police said in a statement released Friday. 

“The review concluded Officer (Michael) Dieck was not in violation of agency policy or misconduct,” police spokesperson Joe Moylan said in a statement.

“The Aurora Police Department has chosen not to hold Officer Dieck accountable for the life he took,” family members of Lewis said in a joint statement. “Instead, they have invited him back into the very community he betrayed. With this decision, our pain, already unbearable, has been compounded.”

The police announcement follows a district attorney decision last month not to press charges against Dieck for his part in the death of the unarmed Black man. 

The shooting has prompted a bevy of protests at Aurora City Council meetings and outside city hall.

Family members of Lewis have repeatedly been critical of the department for what they deem was the wrongful police shooting of an unarmed Black man and a preventable death.

Lewis was wanted on a warrant to face charges for first-degree attempted murder for shooting an unarmed man in Denver earlier this year in May. Police said Lewis was also connected to another shooting from inside his moving car.

Aurora police said Friday that the department’s Force Review Board, which includes Chief Todd Chamberlain, concluded Dieck “was not in violation of agency policy or misconduct,” according to the statement.

Police said the incident has prompted Chamberlain, who joined the force in September, to review all SWAT operations and functions.

“As with all department functions, we will ensure that the operations not only align with industry best practices, but also with our mission to make the city of Aurora a safe community to live, work and raise a family,” Chamberlain said. “The review is being done in the spirit of the principles of the consent decree including transparency, continuous improvement and accountability to our residents.”

After the decision by District Attorney John Kellner, who investigated the shooting, Dieck returned to work at the police department in the Electronic Support Section of the department and will not return to SWAT, Moylan said.

Five officers rushed onto Lewis May 23 while attempting to arrest him at an Aurora apartment parking lot. Police bodycam video showed that only one officer, Dieck, fired at Lewis as he raised his hands above his head, holding a mobile phone in one hand.

In video clips taken from the perspectives of multiple officers, Lewis can be seen raising his hands, one of which held a phone, before Dieck fired the single shot that police say caused Lewis’ death.

Lewis had run-ins with law enforcement prior to May, pleading guilty to separate incidents of robbery, child abuse, trespassing and illegally discharging a firearm. State records show he served time in Colorado’s Department of Corrections.

But the SWAT unit moved in to arrest Lewis because of the Denver shooting.

The arrest

Police officials said Aurora and Denver police tracked Kilyn Lewis to an apartment complex in the 300 block of South Ironton Street, where Aurora SWAT officers confronted him as he was standing near the open trunk of a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo, one of the vehicles visible on surveillance camera footage taken of the drive-by shooting weeks prior.

The body-worn camera footage released in June shows officers approaching Kilyn Lewis with their guns raised and demanding that Lewis get on the ground.

Kilyn Lewis starts to back away and reaches behind his back. He then moves his hands, one of which holds a cellphone, from behind his back and raises them, and is shot once by Dieck. As he falls to the ground, Kilyn Lewis yells multiple times, “I don’t have nothing.”

Family members have repeatedly asked for unedited and all body cam video from the shooting, but as of October, had not received it, a spokesperson for the family said.

In the Oct. 11 DA report, investigators essentially repeated that description of events, adding some detail.

“The officers converged on Mr. Lewis with weapons drawn, identifying themselves as police officers, and yelling repeated commands for him to show his hands and get on the ground,” according to the investigation report. “Mr. Lewis initially showed his left hand but did not follow commands and instead dropped his right hand to his right rear pocket and began to dig in that pocket, out of direct view by the officers.

“Mr. Lewis then brought his hand up from his right rear pocket holding something in his hand. At that point, Officer Mike Dieck of the APD SWAT team fired one round from his pistol, striking Mr. Lewis in the stomach.”

The investigation says that Lewis fell to the ground and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died.

The report cites an autopsy, revealing that the cause of death was the gunshot wound to the abdomen.

“Toxicology results revealed recent cocaine and fentanyl use by Mr. Lewis,” the report states.

Kellner said he accepted Dieck’s explanation for firing at Lewis.

“Dieck explained that he fired because he believed the object in Mr. Lewis’ hand was a firearm, and based on the totality of the circumstances, including Mr. Lewis’ body movement, moving towards the officers when confronted, the crime Mr. Lewis was wanted for, and his violent history, that Lewis was preparing to shoot at Dieck and other officers,” Kellner stated.

Previous history for Aurora officer

Three years before the fatal shooting of Kilyn Lewis, Aurora police Dieck used a Taser on a suspect during a 2021 incident that resulted in charges being filed against another officer who beat the same suspect with a gun as well as a third officer who failed to intervene.

The Sentinel on July 3 received a confidential tip about Dieck’s involvement in the July 23, 2021, arrest of Kyle Vinson by officers John Haubert and Francine Martinez. Vinson and two other men were sitting in a parking lot at the time they were confronted by Haubert and Martinez, who were responding to a trespassing call.

After learning that the three men had outstanding warrants, Martinez tried placing one of the men with Vinson in handcuffs. The man pulled away from Martinez, and he and the other man with Vinson fled on foot. Haubert then pushed Vinson, who had remained seated, backward onto the ground.

Despite the fact that Vinson did not run or attack officers, Haubert repeatedly struck Vinson in the head and face with his pistol. He held Vinson down by the throat as the 29-year-old cried and pleaded for Haubert to stop, repeatedly telling Haubert, “Don’t shoot me,” and, “You’re killing me.”

Arrest affidavits describe and footage captured by the body-worn cameras of Haubert and Martinez show Dieck arriving on the scene as backup while Haubert and Martinez continue to restrain Vinson. By this point, Vinson’s face is bruised and covered with blood, and he yells for help as Dieck approaches.

Haubert and Martinez roll Vinson onto his side, and Dieck shoots Vinson in the leg with a Taser. Vinson screams, and Dieck warns Vinson that, if Vinson doesn’t extend his hands, he is “going to get it again.”

Vinson was ultimately arrested for a domestic violence warrant — at the hospital, he was treated for the head wounds inflicted by Haubert and received multiple stitches.

Then-police chief Vanessa Wilson condemned the treatment of Vinson during a press conference shortly after the incident, saying she was “disgusted” and that the actions of the officers involved were “not police work.”

Martinez was subsequently charged with and found guilty of failure to intervene in the use of excessive force, the first conviction of its kind in Colorado. Haubert was charged with assault, felony menacing and other crimes but acquitted at trial in April.

While the arrest affidavits for Haubert and Martinez mention Dieck’s involvement in the arrest of Vinson, Dieck was not criminally charged, and police department spokesman Joe Moylan wrote in an email July 9 that Dieck’s use of a Taser during the 2021 incident was evaluated by APD’s Force Investigations Unit and found to have been “objectively reasonable.”

Family members said they will continue protesting the decision.

“The statement by Chief Chamberlain claiming this decision aligns with the department’s mission to make Aurora a “safe community to live, work, and raise a family” is hollow and cruel,” the family said in Friday’s statement. “This decision does not restore trust — it deepens the divide between the Aurora Police Department and the community. It reinforces the painful truth that our safety is not a priority, and our lives are not valued.”