AURORA | Arapahoe County District Attorney Amy Padden released a detailed report Friday concluding that Aurora police acted reasonably and lawfully when an officer fatally shot a 17-year-old boy who told a 911 dispatcher he planned to shoot police and then charged at officers while appearing to conceal a gun at an Aurora gas station.
The decision clears Aurora Police Officer Derek Paulson of any criminal wrongdoing in the Sept. 18, 2025, shooting death of an unarmed Blaze Balle-Mason outside a Conoco gas station at 290 S. Havana St.
Police training experts and some local officers said the incident unfolded as what police call a “suicide by cop” case, where people threaten mass shootings or other violent crimes with the intent of prompting police to kill them when they respond.
After a brief but intense interaction with police, where the unarmed boy pretended to have a concealed firearm, the boy was killed by police, who found a note on the boy’s body asking officers to “please call my dad,” according to the shooting investigation report.
In the Jan. 16 written determination based on an investigation by the 18th Judicial District’s Critical Incident Response Team, Padden said Paulson reasonably believed Balle-Mason posed an imminent threat of deadly force to officers and others and that firing his gun at the boy was justified under the circumstances.
The incident began shortly after 7:30 p.m., when Balle-Mason called 911 from inside the gas station, identifying himself by name and giving his date of birth. He told the dispatcher he was armed with a loaded gun concealed in the front pocket of his hoodie and intended to use it.
“I’m actually in here with a 9-millimeter pistol. I’m about to shoot the place up and, uh, I think the cops need to come here right away,” Balle-Mason said, according to a 911 transcript included in the report.
When the dispatcher asked him to leave the building, he refused. Pressed about his intentions, he was explicit.
“Honestly, I’m waiting for the cops to show up so I can just shoot at ’em,” he said.
Asked why, Balle-Mason replied, “I’m just tired of cops.”
During the call, the dispatcher attempted to calm him and gather information for responding officers. Balle-Mason provided his physical description, confirmed the gun was loaded and said no shots had been fired, “not yet.”
He claimed his mother had been killed by police in California five or six years earlier, a statement investigators later said could not be verified.
“I really don’t want you to do anything to hurt anybody else,” the dispatcher told him, urging him to stay on the line. Balle-Mason agreed but ended the call shortly afterward.
The gas station clerk locked the store at police direction, and Balle-Mason went outside. Drone footage and nearby cameras showed him on the south side of the gas station with one hand inside his hoodie pocket. Police officers said he appeared to conceal an object consistent with his statements to dispatch, investigators said.
Four Aurora police officers converged on the scene and developed a plan to approach using the building for cover, police said just after the shooting in September.
Paulson carried a 40mm “less-lethal launcher” while other officers were armed with live rounds, according to the investigative report.
When officers began issuing commands from the north side of the building, Balle-Mason stood up from near a gas pump and walked toward them, ignoring repeated orders to show his hands.
Paulson fired four less-lethal rounds, striking Balle-Mason each time, but the report said the rounds had no apparent effect, which is what police Chief Todd Chamberlain told reporters in September.
Officers retreated behind the gas station as Balle-Mason continued first walking toward them and then began running toward them, still with his hand concealed, investigators reported. Video from officer body cam and security video corroborated that account.
As the boy rounded the corner of the building and closed to within about 10 to 15 feet, Paulson fired two shots from his handgun, striking Balle-Mason once in the upper right chest.
Balle-Mason collapsed, face down, with his hands under his body. Officers rendered aid until additional units arrived, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy found bruising consistent with all four less-lethal impacts and ruled the cause of death was the single gunshot wound.
Investigators reported that Balle-Mason had been unarmed.
Padden said in her report that officers had to rely on Balle-Mason’s repeated statements that he was armed and intended to shoot police. She said his refusal to show his hands, his aggressive charge toward officers and his failure to respond to less-lethal force justified lethal force.
“At the moment Officer Paulson fired his handgun,” Padden wrote, “he reasonably believed that Balle-Mason was imminently attempting to use deadly physical force by charging officers while concealing what appeared to be a firearm.”
Under Colorado law, prosecutors must decline criminal charges against police if they cannot disprove an officer’s claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. Padden concluded that standard could not be met in this case.
“Accordingly, I find that Officer Paulson did not commit any crimes,” she wrote. “Our office will not file criminal charges against him.”
Police released other details last year
Padden’s report mirrored an account of the evening Chamberlain related to reporters just after the shooting last year.
When providing detail of the shooting during a neighborhood meeting held by a former city council member last October, Chamberlain went further, however, in describing details about the boy not released earlier by police or in Padden’s report.
Chamberlain told constituents Oct. 22 of former City Councilmember Steve Sundberg that the boy was transgender and their “whole life was tragic.”
Chamberlain also said that Balle-Mason was living in a halfway house at the time of the shooting, which also was not disclosed in Padden’s report.
“That 17-year-old boy, which is, again, it’s tragic,” Chamberlain said during the town hall meeting. “I think his whole life was tragic, to be honest with you. He was not in his home. He was living in a facility. He was actually taken out of his home. He was going through sexual confusion. He was transitioning. There were all kinds of dynamics that are incredibly troubling.”
The comments drew rebukes from transgender medical workers and activists.
Steven Haden, a psychiatric social worker and founder of Envision: You, which is a statewide mental health initiative supporting LGBTQ Coloradans, told the Sentinel in October that outing someone for their gender identity or their sexual orientation is a “violation of privacy, and it creates a very serious safety threat for those who are encountering police.”
“It is incredibly dehumanizing,” Haden said. “It continues to erode trust between LGBTQ individuals and law enforcement, which is not good for anyone, and the speculation around a person’s identity who’s now dead was immaterial to the situation itself.”
If the person were alive, it could lead to job or housing loss, and it could be the first time the person’s family learns the information, Haden said. In this situation, when the person is dead, it seems irrelevant to the public’s need to know.
Chamberlain did not explain why he provided the details about Balle-Mason at the council ward town meeting.
Other police experts questioned how Aurora police responded to the call, saying the case was clearly, to them, what police call “suicide by cop” incident.
Aurora police employees contacted the Sentinel after the shooting and agreed to speak anonymously because they were unauthorized to publicly discuss the topic. They said the incident was clearly a “suicide by cop” incident, requiring a special response.
The term refers to a well-researched law-enforcement phenomenon where a person intentionally provokes officers into using lethal force. Subjects typically call police to announce their intentions, threaten to kill officers and often are found without weapons.
Aurora police said Balle-Mason was found to be unarmed after the shooting.
When Aurora police arrived at the gas station scene, officers first used a 40-millimeter less-lethal launcher, which fires “rubber” or “foam” projectiles,” in an effort to defuse the encounter.
Officers are trained to recognize and respond appropriately, Chamberlain said during a previous press conference, but he added that this incident was unique and must be evaluated based on the facts known at the time, not in hindsight.
He also said in the previous press conference that Aurora’s crisis response units and clinicians are designed to respond to non-violent situations, such as when someone is despondent, suicidal or refusing to eat or sleep.
During the Oct. 22 town hall meeting, Chamberlain said that all active shooter situations involve suicidal ideation.
“Almost all of those individuals who are involved in active shooters or schoolyard violence,” Chamberlain said. “It is a process of suicide ideation, where they say that they are going to be killed at the end of an event. They have no plans of surrender. If you look at the ones that have occurred recently, most of them have been killed either by self-infliction or they’ve been killed by police.”
There is no perfect solution, and officers may have no choice but to use lethal force for public safety, he said.
The FBI recommends distinct training for suicide by cop and in active shooter situations, even though the shooter is usually also suicidal. The FBI said that clues of when someone is a suicide by cop suspect include having no demands, presenting no terms, advancing on police and reaching for or raising a weapon or imitation weapon.
Tactics to defuse the situation include overtly showing compassion and offering help, rather than appear immediately confrontational.
“If a weapon had been drawn,” Haden said, “law enforcement needs to address that threat immediately and take whatever actions necessary to protect themselves and the safety of people in the area. That’s just a very different approach, and this was not an active shooter. This is not a person who has shown a weapon to anyone. And so it’s just very different.”
Chamberlain said last year that Aurora police would conduct a separate investigation into the shooting. Details about that investigation were not available at press time.