AURORA | Aurora police released police body-cam video of what led up to the May 12 officer-involved shooting of Rashaud Johnson at an off-site airport parking lot.
“I feel for the father,” Chamberlain said. “I feel for the individual. I feel for our officer that he had to be put in that position.”
The family of Johnson, 32, was shown the body-camera footage in advance of Thursday’s press conference, according to Chief Todd Chamberlain. Police posted the Aurora Police Department’s X account.
“I’m very open about all this video,” Chamberlain said. “The entire full-length video is going to be released so that not only the media can have it, but anybody can have it on our portal that basically demonstrates what occurred during this particular event.”
Police were called to the Parking Spot lot, 19901 E 56th Ave., at about 3 p.m. by employees who said a man was going car to car checking door handles and refused to leave.
A police officer went to the lot at about 5:15 p.m.
“The (manager of the lot) calls back again, and he states that the male is now trying to fight them, and he is also trying to fight individuals in The Parking Spot themselves,” Chamberlain said. “This call gets upgraded due to the threat, which is increased over a period of time. And at 5:18 p.m. our officer gets dispatched to the location.”
In the video, the officer approaches Johnson and asks him why he is not wearing shoes and what he is doing there. The man doesn’t respond. Then the officer tells the man he needs to leave.
Chamberlain did not identity the officer nor give details about his tenure in the police department.
The man looks at the officer and begins to run toward him with his hands down, making giggling sounds. The officer continues to push the man off of him, yelling at him to get back.
“I’m going to shoot you, dude,” the officer said before he pulled out a baton and struck Johnson. The officer then tried to back away and grabbed for his taser. He pointed it at Johnson, who began to run at him again. The officer tased Johnson twice before Johnson tackled the officer to the ground.
The body camera footage makes it hard to see if Johnson was hurt or affected by the taser, but Chamberlain said that neither the baton nor the taser affected him, according to the officer involved.
As the men are on the ground shuffling around, the officer tells Johnson to get off him and asks him, “What are you doing, man?”
“You’re not in trouble,” the officer said, to which Johnson responded by asking “what,” and the officer repeated that “you’re not in trouble.”
The officer talks into his radio, saying, “Step it up, step it up,” and then screams, “Hey man, help me.”
Johnson gets hold of something belonging to the officer, which Chamberlain said in the press conference was his magazine for his gun. The officer gets free and points his gun at Johnson, continuously telling Johnson to get on the ground and that he’s going to shoot him.
“Those three or four minutes of being involved in that physical confrontation, I’m sure that that officer must have felt like three or four years,” Chamberlain said during the press conference.
Johnson seems to get distracted for a short while before the officer yells to get on the ground for a third time, and Johnson starts walking toward him. The officer tells him to stop, get back and that he will shoot him before firing two shots at Johnson.
Additional police and rescuers provided first aid to Johnson, and he was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
“I really wish that I could to you and to the community as a whole, say, ‘Here’s what we know, and here’s why this individual did these actions,’” Chamberlain said. “But that’s the tragedy of these events, because so often you don’t know.”
The coroner has not released autopsy details about possible substances detected..
“Why is somebody who may need mental health issues, may have substance abuse issues, why aren’t there systems in place other than law enforcement to address those issues?” Chamberlain said during the press conference. “Why has it become so normalized that law enforcement is the de facto response to every situation that there is?”
In 2024, there were 7,438 calls that were similar, Chamberlain said. In 2025, it was 2,574, so almost 10,000 calls year to date, in an 18-month period, he said.
“When I talk about the failure of the system, when I talk about a lot of things that law enforcement is tasked with, that there should definitely be other societal systems that are dealing with this, this is a perfect example of that,” Chamberlain said.
An outside investigation by a Critical Incident Response Team, led by the 17th Judicial District, has not yet determined whether the officer violated any laws during the shooting. An APD internal affairs investigation is also forthcoming.
We should be holding the legislature accountable for passing SB217. That dangerous and vague bill drove thousands of police officers out of policing. The chiefs and sheriffs, who don’t give officers the needed training, have been irresponsibly quiet about SB217. So, we have too few officers who have inadequate training trying to deal with mentally ill and dangerous people on drugs. Crime is down is another way of saying that people are not calling to report crime or request the police because they know the police will not come or will come far too late.
Just a side note. The department should realize that the expandable baton is not a good weapon when the suspect is charging you. I don’t expect that they will learn much from this incident. The skill level and training of the APD have declined while they claim they are making great progress with the Consent Decree. As long as you believe your press releases and not the realities, things are smooth.
Please just go away Mr Black. You make a lot of allegations with out showing any proof. This is going to cost the City and you and me when they settle this lawsuit.
Any cop I’ve seen on APD could have taken down this fella physically without any issue. I will agree that I’m wondering where the training is and why the officer didn’t wait for backup.
The Denver Gazette: “An Aurora police officer shot and killed a man in mid-May after responding to a suspicious person call and being tackled to the ground by the suspect, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said …”
If correct, the individual got himself shot. ‘Suicide by cop.’ ?
Trying to downplay the department’s staffing shortages with all of that talk about the size of the city does little to address the fact that the legislature and the governor need to repeal the SB217 bill. They are still talking about how public safety is a priority while they created the shortages of officers and continue to create a dangerous environment for officers.
Trying to downplay the reason only one officer responded is a disservice to the officers and the public. The initial information screams “mental illness or drugs”. As the violence in the call escalates it is obvious that more than one officer should be sent. This is not some odd occurrence as the Chief implies. This is happening all over the country. The Chief is right about the fact that after all of the great talk after George Floyd, there was little done in regard to mental health. It continues to fall upon the police since it is cheaper. At the same time, the legislature came up with vague and unrealistic use of force standards for law enforcement.
For the poor officer, it should have been obvious almost immediately that he would need cover. The initial dispatch information should have told him so. When he saw the subject wandering around shoeless and not listening, it should have been obvious that force would be a likely result and that he needed to stay away from the subject until cover arrived. I know that the liberals and the legislature cannot understand that force is often unavoidable, but it is a fact. The switch from talk to violence often happens suddenly. To not scream about the SB217 and the resulting shortage of police officers, is gross neglect on the part of all of our police “leaders”. To send your officers alone into situations without adequate training and proper equipment is the height of negligence. Luckily for our police “leaders”, the public is unaware of this negligence and never put blame where it belongs. The resulting deaths can always be forgotten.
I have handled violent calls alone when we had no choice. I understand the responsibility to take action to protect citizens. I spent a great deal of money and time getting the training the department should have given me. I had the support of the citizens at that time. The new officers don’t realize yet that people like the Attorney General will hold them accountable for all the ills of the system. The legislature does not understand that the suspect almost always determines the level of force.
Personally. I feel little remorse for people who are killed attacking officers. Professionally, I did all that I could did keep from killing them. But that often means that the suspect will be injured instead of being killed. The City still has not admitted the great misdeed perpetrated upon two officers in the case where the officer pistol whipped the suspect who was trying to take his gun. The APD charged the officer in three days without ever looking at videos that later cleared the officer in court. The individuals responsible for a dishonest investigation, both criminally and internally, were never held accountable. To this day, the videos that cleared the officer have not been shown to the public.
I can see that unlike former Chief Vanessa Wilson, Chief Chamberlain is going to try to stand up for his officers publicly after the fact. That is admirable on his part. Now, if he would get with the other chiefs and get them to stand up against SB217 and do proper training, that would be standing up for officers before the fact. I realize that as a chief, he knows little about use of force training. Unfortunately, that goes for the Consent Decree Monitor also. Do all the bias training you want, it will do little to prevent incidents like the latest few. Everything isn’t a racial issue like the Attorney General and the legislature insist.
The APD released the body camera footage to provide transparency and accountability regarding the incident.
WELL, it would seem a jury will make the ultimate decision. I saw way too many opportunities for the officer to de escalate prior to the shooting.
Shucks, he could have gotten back into his cruiser for that matter. The man was not armed. He could have sprayed him…kicked his legs out from under him…handcuffed him…any number of things. They will win this lawsuit