AURORA | Aurora’s Police Department has released more video footage of an officer’s fatal shooting of Jor’Dell Richardson, 14, earlier this month, nonetheless leaving questions about what prompted the decision to shoot.
Aurora police released five videos Monday in addition to the body-worn camera footage filmed from the perspective of the officers who confronted Richardson that had been released earlier this month.
Three of the videos capture different perspectives of Richardson and his young associates fleeing after what police described — after the call to the location — as an armed robbery of a convenience store. A fourth video shows an alley near where Richardson was shot and captures audio of the shooting.
CLICK: ADDITIONAL VIDEOS ARE HERE
The fifth video, filmed from an alley surveillance camera, shows officers James Snapp taking Richardson to the ground and struggling with the teen before Richardson is shot by Officer Roch Gruszeczka.
Like the body-worn camera footage, the video offers little clarity as to what precisely Richardson was doing at the moment he was shot. At one point, Richardson’s right arm is extended away from officers as he is pinned on his back, but the arm moves or is moved closer to his body before the fatal shot, after which Gruszeczka tosses Richardson’s pellet gun away.
Richardson’s left arm is not visible at the moment of the shooting. When asked whether the department had released all of the video evidence in its possession, police spokeswoman Sydney Edwards said “there could be other video that was collected as part of the entire investigation, but at this time we have not been made aware of other video.”
“What we have been able to release so far has been the most important video evidence collected,” she said.
Members of the public have been calling for police to share all available recordings of the shooting for weeks, following the revelation that interim police chief Art Acevedo’s initial comments that Richardson had a firearm were incorrect.
The shooting and police response has led to calls for Acevedo to step down. The conduct of the officers involved is currently being scrutinized as part of probes by the 18th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team and the department itself.
An attorney for Richardson’s family, Siddhartha Rathod, said the video shows Richardson never threatened officers with a weapon.
“There is no evidence from any of the videos released to date that shows this shooting of a 14 year old child was justified,” he said. “What the videos do demonstrate is that the Aurora Chief of Police cannot be trusted to be objective.”
Armed robbery
“police response has led to calls for Acevedo to step down.”
What? Are you kidding? These people demanding the chief to step down need to look at these videos again to see some true reality. The boys and their own categorically unlawful actions start a chain rection of events that end badly. I guess the APD chief is now also now the city baby sitter for young boys that parents don’t know what their kids are doing. Incredible ! But that is the thinking, always blame somebody else, instead of standing in the shoes of accountable parents to answer to why these kids are stealing cars, and robbing businesses. None of these questions are ever probed-oh-no. There is going to be some on this city council that will be more than willing and so badly wanting to sacrifice the Chief to appease these activists. Thus, setting up another compromise for the next time we go through the similar thing.
Again,
Aurora PD did there job and did it well. The young man made some horrible decisions and choices that day. He robbed a place, then ran and had a gun. Cops did not know it was a pellet gun. Sorry about his loss but, he obviously wasn’t taught not to rob a store, not to run from the cops and not to have a gun in your shorts. We blame his parents for that. Maybe his parents need to look how they raised him and choices he made. Stop the lawyer crap and stop blaming APD. Sad ending but, if you have a gun in your shorts and you run from the cops it’s never gonna end well. We applaud APD and the parents need to stop making this about an innocent young man who did nothing wrong. Life doesn’t work that way.
No justification at all, abominable, 2 250-pound plus cops, 14 yo boy 140-150 pounds tackled by Officer 1, and under control and shot by Officer # 2 while he is flat on his back with Officer 1 on top. This should cost the City 2-3 times McClain settlement, and I only hope it is taken out of the police department budget! I also think Officer 2 should be sued and if he has bus fare to Texas left that is too much!
Your rage is misplaced. Be angry at the punks who were riding around in stolen cars, stealing from neighborhood stores, running from cops, and holding a gun. The summer had only started and yet these boys were already wrapped up in crime. The boys should actually owe the city for their misdeeds!
So, 30 to 45 million to the parents of the child out running in a pack, in a stolen vehicle, committing armed robbery, who fled from the cops and then struggled with them while armed.
When did we start calling a group of juvenile criminals “young associates” and giving them such undue respect?
All this video is nice to show us the robbers in the run from the law as fast as we can and their felony primed get-away plan. The video we have not seen is these robbers armed intimidation of the owners of the store. You have to wonder was the store clerk trying to stop the thievery or accept this newfound take what you want and have a nice day? Something now so rooted into today’s culture, and a society that is ever so tolerating because politicians sell it as disparity and turn it into something its not, a racial issue?
In a split second decision, how would you expect the officer to recognize the weapon as a pellet gun? Seemed to be awfully close to a regular gun. Also, how was he to know how old the perpetrator was? It only lasted a few seconds at most.