AURORA | As the public awaits the body camera footage and investigation details of the officer-involved shooting of a Black man, there has been a public outcry from the community about how the police department handled the initial attempts at transparency.
“I think the community is more outraged, not because we have to undertake an investigation,” Councilmember Alison Coombs said during a City Council meeting Monday. “We do that every time this happens, because there are, unfortunately, way too many, but because there have been not one, but two press conferences in which details were revealed and a narrative was crafted” before an investigation was undertaken.
The traffic-stop-turned-car-crash and subsequent shooting of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield happened on Aug. 30 near East Sixth Avenue at about Billings Street as numerous cars rolled past and witnesses inside and outside of cars watched events unfold, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told reporters at a press conference Sept. 2.
People from across the community have, on social media and public events, offered criticism and even outrage in some of the details Chamberlain shared with the public before the body camera footage could be released, and before he was entirely sure of the “facts” he was sharing.
Chamberlain “said, I’m gonna give you the facts,” Jeff Fard, “Brother Jeff,” said during his Sept. 3 Facebook streaming talk-show. “In other words, everything else is not a fact. You did not see an unarmed Black man gunned down by one of my officers. That’s what you did not see. I’m like, isn’t that what they said about Rodney King?”
In the first press conference, Chamberlain stated that Belt-Stubblefield was pulled over for a possible DUI. However, at the second press conference, Chamberlain said that he was unsure whether Belt-Stubblefield was pulled over for speeding or a DUI, as he was determining the attempted arrest solely through body camera footage. At the time, neither Chamberlain nor other officers had interviewed the police officer who shot Belt-Stubblefield.
When asked if Chamberlain’s lack of knowledge about why Belt-Stubblefield was pulled over means that the officer did not report the reason for the stop, a police department spokesperson declined to respond.
MiDian Shofner, a well-known activist and central figure in Aurora’s current police reform controversy, especially involving the topic of Black men being shot by Aurora police, was the first car that was struck by Belt-Stubblefield, she said.
Shofner told the Sentinel she witnessed the entire turn of events, including the shooting.
After Belt-Stubblefield crashed into the two vehicles, the officer told him to stay in his vehicle, Chamberlain said. Belt-Stubblefield did not listen and got out of his car and tossed a handgun into the grass patch next to the road. Later, Belt-Stubblefield told the people around him to “get my shit,” which Chamberlain asserted meant he wanted someone to grab the gun to potentially shoot the officer.
“If Mr. Belt-Stubblefield indeed discarded a weapon into a grass-covered area, that is an act of disarming himself, not threatening the officer or the community,” Shofner said in a statement. “To claim otherwise is to twist fact into fiction in order to justify state violence.”
As Belt-Stubblefield turned to throw his gun in the grass, the officer attempted to grab Belt-Stubblefield, and they both fell to the ground from what the small clip of the body camera footage showed. Chamberlain then froze the camera to show that Belt-Stubblefield managed to get up before the officer and stand over him.
The officer managed to stand up, and the two were shown facing each other, and Chamberlain said Belt-Stubblefield started to say, “Get my shit,” to the people behind him, one of whom was his son, who Chamberlain said was following his father in a second vehicle before the incident
“Chamberlain further claims Mr. Belt-Stubblefield told his son to ‘Get the shit,’ implying this referred to retrieving a discarded gun,” Shofner said in her statement. “That is reckless speculation masquerading as fact. In the same press update, Chamberlain admitted he was ‘not in (Mr. Belt-Stubblefield’s) mind,’ yet he presumed to speak with certainty about Mr. Belt-Stubblefield’s intentions.”
As Belt-Stubblefirel turns to speak to the people behind him, the officer punches him in the face. Chamberlain said this was a de-escalation tactic.
Punching someone in the face is a tactic for defensive training and is not considered a de-escalation tactic, according to the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). They said that de-escalation is what is used to avoid using force, and a punch to the face is used to distract and as a tactic to “bring someone under control.”
Police One Academy refers to the tactics as a (potentially outdated) defense tactic and not a de-escalation tactic.
Belt-Stubblefield is shown to get angry after being punched in the face, according to snippets of the body camera footage provided by police and additional footage shared from witnesses. Belt-Stubblefield walks toward the officer, causing him to back up into the road, and the officer then fired his gun and killed Belt-Stubblefield.
The shooting is now under investigation by the 18th Judicial District’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), which is composed of investigators from partnering law
enforcement agencies within Arapahoe County, including the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, local police departments and criminal investigators from the District Attorney’s Office, according to the district attorney’s office.
“The Critical Incident Response Team follows a written protocol, which was adopted to guide
investigations into officer-involved incidents involving deadly force or potential deadly force, and to ensure that these complex and sensitive investigations are conducted impartially, thoroughly, and transparently,” said Eric Ross, spokesperson for the 18th District in a statement.
Aurora police are currently under a consent decree imposed by the state Attorney General Phil Weiser, after a 2022 investigation determined the department has for years exhibited “patterns and practices” of using excessive force against the public, especially people of color.
“Aurora is under a consent decree, in part, because Aurora did not create and oversee appropriate expectations for responsible behavior, which led to the use of excessive force and the violation of the civil rights of its residents,” Weiser said in a statement Monday. “The consent decree’s mandates include creating specific guidance on officers’ exercise of discretion during interactions with community members to address perceived or actual bias in policing and improving use-of-force policies and training to avoid unnecessarily escalating encounters with community members.”
“We understand the community’s frustration when incidents indicate these mandates are unmet,” Weiser said. “It is the role of the consent decree monitor to oversee the police department’s compliance with the decree and its progress implementing it. We will continue to evaluate the progress mandated by the decree and how Aurora PD can improve its policing and gain community trust.”
Weiser said his office has insisted on Aurora PD creating a structure in the department that provides independent oversight of the police, and that the goal is to begin work on that soon.
Cops lie for each other and the sky is blue. These are both facts
In this case the facts are:
Driver ignored police directives
Driver damaged multiple cars
Driver had a gun
Driver was aggressive and threatening
Driver pushed officer into busy roadway