AURORA | During a news conference Thursday morning, the family of an unarmed man shot by an Aurora SWAT officer last month demanded the filing of charges against the officer involved.
Anndrec Lewis, widow of 37-year-old Kilyn Lewis, sobbed as she spoke about how she hoped the Aurora Police Department would take action to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
“The Aurora Police Department needs to hold their own accountable,” she said. “Officer (Michael) Dieck needs to be held accountable, and I will not stop until I get justice for Kilyn.”
The news conference began about an hour after Aurora police published body-worn camera footage of the May 23 shooting. The footage shows Kilyn Lewis raising his hands, one of which holds a cellphone, at the moment he is shot by Dieck.
Officers were attempting to arrest Kilyn Lewis, who was wanted for attempted first-degree murder after allegedly taking part in a May 5 drive-by shooting that wounded a man in Denver.
At the news conference, Anndrec Lewis went on to describe the pain she feels daily after losing her husband.
“Officer Dieck ignored the law and fired the shot that killed Kilyn,” she said. “Life changed for the worse because of the shot that the good officers (couldn’t) stop. Officer Dieck murdered, murdered my husband. He took everything from me.”
Lewis family attorney Edward Hopkins Jr. demanded Dieck’s arrest and the release of all information about the incident, including unedited video footage.
“(Dieck) needs to be arrested like he should have been on May 23, needs to be investigated, needs to be prosecuted and needs to go before a jury of his peers,” Hopkins said. “We need to get all of the information, everything that they know, so that we all can decide for ourselves whether what he did was murder number one or murder in the second degree.”
LaRonda Jones, mother of Kilyn Lewis, chose not to enter the room until after the video of her son being fatally shot by the Aurora SWAT officer had been played for the press, taking the podium to demand accountability and justice.
“Today, I stand before you not just as a grieving mother, but as a voice for my son. I stand here demanding accountability, demanding Kilyn’s death not be in vain,” Jones said.
She described grieving her son and feeling a sense of injustice as she addressed Dieck by name.
“I want you to have your day in court, something you did not allow my son to have,” Jones said.
“We are not statistics, nor mere headlines. We are families scattered and shattered by senseless violence. We are mothers weeping for our sons, children growing up fatherless, a community suffocating under the weight of injustice.”
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.
Members of Lewis’ family were shown the footage of the May 23 shooting before it was released to the public. Even before Thursday’s news conference, they reacted with grief and anger to what they described as the latest example of Aurora police taking the life of an unarmed Black man.
“It was all flat-out murder,” Kilyn’s brother, Kiawa, told the Sentinel on Wednesday. “After everything that’s going on, we’re calling all leaders to step in and make something happen.”
The shooting is being investigated by the Aurora Police Department’s Internal Investigations Bureau as well as by the 18th Judicial District’s Critical Incident Response Team, which has the power to recommend criminal charges for Dieck.
“We take any use of force seriously, especially when there is a loss of life,” interim police chief Heather Morris said in the video released Thursday by APD, which is introduced and partially narrated by Morris. “Any loss of life is a tragedy for an individual’s family, the community and the officers involved, no matter the circumstances.”
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.
After the Denver shooting, Morris 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 Thursday 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.”
Morris said in the APD video that, at the time of the shooting, Dieck had worked as an Aurora police officer for 12 years and had served on the SWAT team for eight years. According to Morris, SWAT officers provided emergency medical care to Lewis, who was pronounced dead after he was taken to a hospital.
Kiawa Lewis told the Sentinel that he received a phone call from his mother informing him of his younger sibling’s death while commuting home from work. He described Kilyn as “loving, caring and someone who would give you the shirt off his back.”
The Lewis family has been outspoken in its condemnation of the actions of Dieck, demanding consequences from police and city lawmakers.
At a June 10 meeting of Aurora’s City Council, they said Dieck had acted as “judge, jury and executioner,” and called for the establishment of a civilian oversight entity with authority over the police department.
In their news release, attorneys for the Lewis family invited members of the public to donate to Kilyn Lewis’ widow, two sons and the rest of his family at https://gofund.me/83197459.
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Killed suspect and Aurora officer who fired fatal shot during May 23 arrest identified
Diatribe from Don Black defending killer cops in three, two, one…
Nope. My guess is that it will go to a grand jury.
The APD does get away with murder. The APD has a lot of problems with their police department. I don’t understand how the department gets away with murder. Everytime u turned, they have killed another civilian, more than likely, an African American male, I am surprised that more African American women are not killed. Well, bc I just said that, I will bet there will be more African American women will be shot. This is a very racist community, starting with the people who r supposed to LOL, “PROTECT and SERVE” LMAO. UNFREAKINBELIEVEABLE!!!!! Someday, unfortunately, the police will get what is owed to them. I won’t b standing there with a kleenex, I will be standing with our African American residents. Actually, there will be a lot of Caucasian residents holding the hands of our African American residents. I will be there with all of the rest Caucasian residents, standing with our African Americans residents with our heads held high. Watch out for that day, no wonder, u r trying to build a community with hate. Hate does not live in Aurora, just the hateful cops.
“More than likely an African American male” I think we’ve all noticed this – Black men getting killed during confrontations with police. One explanation might involve just two words – statistics and culture. Statistics tell us that while African Americans comprise only 13% of the population, they are responsible for 60% of violent crime. This is highly disproportionate and means they are much more likely to come into confrontation with police. Secondly, if you look into the past of these criminals, you are likely to find a greater frequency of broken homes, absent father figures, gang involvement and adoption of street values that place power, respect and loyalty of greater importance than life itself. Problems with authority are seen early in the home and school and progress from then on. By the time they are adults they have a substantial rap sheet and handle confrontations with police by forcing a physical confrontation, resisting arrest or refusing to follow the orders of the officers on scene. This often results in unfortunate injury or death and may in part explain why we see more Blacks dying during confrontations with police. But then, some naturally gravitate towards racism as an explanation.
Nine paragraphs in, it mentions that the man was contacted on an attempted murder charge. That’s an interesting choice to bury that information so far down.
I am surpirsed your vulgarity made it past the review.
I may regret this..
Watched the video on Fox 31 this morning…I saw Kilyn reach behind his back to get his phone; left hand up in the air…
Why do that when a cop has a gun pointed at you?
Suicide by cop. Why else would you start with empty hands, dive into pockets, then quickly pull a cell phone out of your back pocket……all while a bunch of cops are telling you to get on the ground AT GUNPOINT? He probably knew he was facing time and decided to cash his ghetto lottery ticket. Unfortunately, the Aurora taxpayers will now be the better provider to his family than he ever could have been.
Glad you had the courage to say that.
That was murder. There’s no way a trained officer on the swat team for 8 years doesn’t know a cellphone from a gun. Dude also had his hands up when he was shot. Murderers.
When detained at gunpoint, I make it a habit of not reaching around to my rear pocketo pull out my cell phone.
Unless police have x-ray vision, they couldn’t possibly know that the item was a cell phone until it was out of his pocket.
Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC is so consumed with making money he jumps ahead of the pact with his creative narrative of details. As usual, just go by big headlines with no regard to its accurate content.
“if a civilian shot and killed Lewis in similar circumstances, they would be charged with murder.” “similar circumstances” Mr. Rathod Mohamedbhai what— this was extraordinary circumstances? https://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/family-asks-for-criminal-charges-against-aurora-swat-officer-who-fatally-shot-man-during-arrest/
Talk about manufactured spin. Where on this planet is a civilian going to end up be in this same spot trying to arrest someone with an outstanding warrant as a murder suspect? Try that logic with a jury?
Law enforcement officials have been granted the use of deadly force when serving warrants, subpoenas on suspects that create a situation of risk to officers. This is why we need to know more about what the previous attempted murder back in the May look like. These officers operate and rely on that knowledge of prevailing circumstances. A swat team was called, something unusual was up. Glossed over facts that curiously have been omitted in this story. We will fully understand this as time unwraps more facts, it’s more complex than Rathod likes to explain it.
I am not surprised that Phil Welsh’s vulgar comments made it through editorial censorship. Right Mr. Perry?
I am proud to be a old white voter that keeps bringing in the Aurora conservative City Council for the over 40 years I’ve lived here. Can you imagine having someone on City Council that Phil Welsh would vote for?
The Sentinel does a phenomenal job with their obituaries section. It’s an important archive that will help future generations better understand why things are the way they are.
It seems as an after thought Dave Perry did pull Phil Welsh’s vulgar comments. Gold Star to Mr. Perry. Makes my comment anti climatic standing alone as a reply to nothingness.
Dick Moore I’m an old white voter who votes just the opposite of you. But this story is not about politics. It’s about a Police shooting resulting in Death. Mr. Lewis’s life was taken in an Arrest Warrent stop. He was told to get on the ground and instead reached for a phone in back pocket and was shot when he pulled it out. He made a mistake by not listening and paid for the mistake with his life. His mistake.
I don’t disagree with a word you wrote, James. Now if the radical black community in Aurora would understand, “his mistake”.
P.s. Dick Moore, did your name help stear you torwards Fascism politics? Or are you so set in your conservative ways you didn’t notice the Repub party is closer to “Nazisim” than “Democracy”?
I’m a Junior, so my mom and dad gave me my name after my dad. You and other socialists, left leaners and progressives in this and other comment sections have a tendency to use my real name as a “Dick” joke to insult me. When I served in the Army and the “Nam, that’s where I learned to suck it up with my name as I heard it daily.
Did you serve, Jamws? I doubt it as the Army folks would have loved your name, after you explained to them how to pronounce it.
My question to you Jamws, is that the name your parents gave to you? Or are you just another coward that stands behind a false name when you make fun or disagree with someone?
Dudes with assault weapons are approaching you identifying themselves as police and telling you to get on the ground. Not suggesting you simply drop and blow out your knees on asphalt but maybe, hands go out empty and I’m saying as I’m doing it the best I can “I’m getting down on the ground”… versus skittering along, reaching into one pocket and putting the other behind me for_____… see exactly what am getting my cell phone for at this moment? All that said, if he pulls a gun out of his left pocket or that isn’t a cell phone/but rather a weapon… just seems like with all that firepower on display as police you’ve got a least a couple ticks before needing to shoot (in defense?). One less Aurora cop… a dismissal at the very least… trigger happy (accidentally at heightened emotion?) it sure seems. But Lewis’ (in hindsight) poor decision making here appears to be the reason he died.