AURORA | A jury will likely decide whether an Aurora police officer was responsible for the May 12 shooting death of an unarmed, barefoot Black man suffering some kind of mental crisis in a private airport parking lot.
Police Officer Brandon Mills fatally shot 32-year-old Rashaud Johnson in the Parking Spot in northeast Aurora after employees there said a man was behaving erratically, wandering around the complex with no shoes on.
“Yet another unarmed Black man has been condemned to death by the Aurora Police Department,” a statement from the Johnson family’s attorneys said. “Under the APD’s playbook, officers escalate encounters that a reasonable officer would resolve peacefully. APD officers bait Black citizens standing on the other side of the weapons into making one wrong move.”
The same lawyers who handled the Aurora Police wrongful death cases of Elijah McClain and Naeschylus Vinzant-Carter have filed a new wrongful death lawsuit in Adams County district court against Mills and Aurora police.
Attorneys held a press conference Tuesday morning in Denver.
“Someone who thought they were god basically took my baby’s life,” Taushica Carter, Rashaud’s mother, said. Her only son’s death came two days after Mother’s Day.
The lawsuit comes amid a consent decree, which was imposed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in 2021, following investigations into the Aurora Police Department’s excessive use of force and discriminatory practices, particularly against people of color. Triggered in part by the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, who died at the hands of police and rescuers after being stopped, unarmed, the decree mandates broad reforms in training, accountability, use-of-force policies, data systems and community engagement.
This also comes a few weeks short of one year after the death of Kilyn Lewis. Lewis was an unarmed Black man who was also shot and killed by Aurora Police officers. Lewis was fatally shot by a SWAT unit officer while being arrested on a warrant linked to allegations that he shot a homeless man in the shoulder while firing a handgun out of a car window in Denver. Lewis’ family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city in May.
“It’s a pain some people know, but I don’t want them to know it at all because it puts you in a very exclusive club that I wouldn’t ask for anyone,” Rashaud’s father, Christopher Johnson, said.
Two months ago, reporters were ushered into the Aurora Police Department’s press conference room, where Chief Todd Chamberlain recounted the events of an officer-involved shooting that ended in Johnson’s death at the private parking facility.
Mills’ body cam, released then, illustrated a few minutes of the officer trying to discern what was wrong with Johnson as he wandered, mumbled and giggled inappropriately. An unexpected struggle ensues and ends, and the two men separate for some time as Mills calls for backup. Mills shouts several commands for some time and then fatally shoots Johnson at a distance.
Chamberlain, at his press conference, said the shooting was justified under the circumstances outlined in the press conference. However, he called for more support services, such as emergency mental health services, to keep police from acting as the city’s “catch-all,” making a clear admission that Johnson was mentally incapacitated at the time of the shooting.
The city’s press release and news page about Johnson’s death were transparent about most of the details known about the shooting at the time.
“There are countless things that the officer could have done besides discharging the firearm,” attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai said. “Time, distance, cover, de-escalation. He could have just started talking to him. Could have tried showing him some love, some compassion, rendering aid to serve and to protect, not continually bombarding a man with verbal commands that were further agitating the situation.”
Johnson’s family said Tuesday he did not exhibit any abnormal behavior before the incident. His father, Christopher, said his son “moved at his own pace,” describing him as thoughtful with his replies, which might have explained some of the lack of response from Rashaud during the encounter with Mills and the employees at the Parking Spot.
His mother, Carter, said she spoke with him on Mother’s Day and he was “happy and in good spirits.”
Lawyers for Johnson’s family say Mills handled the situation wrong, antagonizing Johnson instead of waiting for police assistance, and then shot him from a distance when any threat was diminished.
“We don’t see these types of encounters when it comes to other races and other genders,” Mohamedbhai said, adding that if it were a white woman, the officer probably would have flirted with her.
Johnson was “unarmed and posing no serious threat” before the confrontation became physical, lawyers said earlier in a statement.
Johnson was a graduate of Regis Jesuit High School and studied economics at the University of Colorado. He then became a local stand-up comedian, performing at a wide range of local clubs, achieving some notoriety in the entertainment community.
It’s unclear how Johnson ended up barefoot and having a mental breakdown at the Parking Spot. His parents said Rashaud and his grandmother both lived a half-mile from the parking business. Lawyers for Johnson’s family said an autopsy report revealed no drugs or alcohol, other than evidence of prior use of marijuana.
Employees who called 911 hours before Mills arrived and the shooting occurred and said they noticed Johnson was behaving strangely, by walking outside barefoot, not speaking to them. A couple of employees speculated that “he seemed like he was on some type of drugs.”
The statement from the firm said that the Parking Spot attendees called 911 to have someone check on Johnson, which can also be heard in the 911 calls posted on the Aurora police website.
The employees also said that he wasn’t harming anyone or doing anything threatening, but they asked for police assistance, which didn’t arrive for hours, when Mills did, alone. The first three calls to police start just before 3 p.m., with each employee asking for someone to check on Rashaud but claiming he is not acting violently; they just want him to leave.
In the fourth call to dispatch just before 4:40 p.m., the manager of the lot states that Rashaud is “trying to unlock people’s car doors,” and that he won’t talk to the employees or leave. This is when dispatch upgraded the priority of the call.
In June, the Sentinel asked city officials why dispatch did not send Emergency Medical Technicians or their Aurora Mobile Response Team for the incident, and they responded that the call did not meet the criteria.
“The Aurora Mobile Response Team was not dispatched to The Parking on Spot on May 12 because the initial reports did not meet the criteria for AMRT response,” officials said in a statement. “Reporting parties state multiple times, in multiple 911 calls, that the suspect is trying to get into a physical altercation with employees, causing them to fear for their safety. AMRT responds to low-intensity mental health calls for service and will not respond to calls for service that include weapons or a component of violence to self, others, or property. Members of the Aurora Mobile Response Team are unarmed and do not fulfill law enforcement duties.”
At 5 p.m., during the fifth 911 call to dispatch, the manager at the lot says for the first time that Rashaud is trying to confront his employees.
“Rather than send someone to help Mr. Johnson, the Aurora Police Department dispatched a single officer, Brandon Mills,” Johnson family lawyers said in an earlier statement. “Officer Mills spent the next few minutes escalating the situation and refusing to disengage, prompting what Officer Mills later described as a ‘tussle’.”
In Mills’ body camera footage, Johnson can be heard making giggling sounds while lunging toward the officer and seemed unaware that there was a gun being pointed at him or that an officer was giving him commands.
In the final 911 call, made moments before the shooting, the manager told dispatchers that Johnson was “tackling” the officer, and he asked dispatch to send the officer backup.
“When Officer Mills stood up from that tussle, he re-engaged, drew his firearm, and aimed it at Mr. Johnson,” lawyers said in a statement. “From that point on, Officer Mills disregarded the fact that Mr. Johnson was unarmed, that Mr. Johnson was calmly walking through the field, or that Mr. Johnson was dozens of feet away.”
The manager was still on the phone with the dispatcher when Mills fired twice from what family lawyers said was about 15 feet away.
“The cop just shot him,” the manager said, beginning to cry. “The cop got him. You guys might want to send someone to help your officer.”
There’s background commotion in the recording.
“I just wanted him off the lot,” the manager said. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Dispatch told him he did the right thing by calling them.
“It doesn’t feel like it,” he said.
The bodycam body video shows a wounded Johnson move, as if to get up, as Mills commands him to “stay down” and “put his hands out,” while continuing to point his gun at Johnson. After that, Johnson does not move again, while Mills spends several minutes standing far away, pointing his gun at Johnson and calling for backup over his radio.
“As Mr. Johnson collapsed in that field, blood pouring from his chest, Officer Mills stood at a distance, still holding him at gunpoint,” family lawyers said in their statement. “Officer Mills made no attempt to provide life-saving aid for five minutes and forty-two seconds after he shot Mr. Johnson — when he finally handcuffed Mr. Johnson and placed a solitary hand on his fatal wound, at the prompting of a recently arrived officer.”
Lawyers for Johnson’s family said he had a nonviolent record with only a traffic citation and a minor marijuana charge from more than a decade ago.
“He had spent his life exploring world religions, wrapping his arms around his family, and telling jokes that made both Colfax comedy clubs and his grandmother laugh,” lawyers said in a statement.
The lawsuit comes before a Critical Incident Response Team investigation report and review of the shooting. Aurora police are conducting their own investigations as well. The CIRT report goes to the 17th Judicial District Attorney Bryan Adams, who will decide whether the shooting was justified or whether to file charges against Mills.
Mohamedbhai said during the Tuesday press conference that he did not need to see the results of the report because he knew what had happened, and there would be the same response that is always given that “the officer was scared.”
City and police officials are aware of the lawsuit, according to City Attorney Pete Schulte. He said in a statement that the CIRT and internal investigations were both ongoing, and the findings and a decision by the district attorney could take weeks, if not months.
“Like any critical incident, there are important facts that will be revealed by these investigations that are not depicted in a single body camera video,” Schulte said in the statement. “Now that this lawsuit has been filed my office will defend the city and the officer in this case.”
Police have not released details about Mills or his tenure on the force, other than he was placed on paid administrative leave pending investigations into the shooting.
“The APD’s list of victims is matched only by their list of broken promises,” lawyers for Johnson’s family said. “In the wake of Elijah McClain’s death, APD entered into a consent decree, promising the community that it would stop robbing families of their children. Recent homicides by APD officers, however, demonstrate that the APD and its officers are turning their backs on that consent decree.”
Attorneys said they want an opportunity for a jury to scrutinize what happened before and during the shooting, as well as make public details of Johnson’s life and how it ended.
“Mr. Johnson’s murder fits into a pattern of unlawful behavior by the APD and its officers, but he was and will always be more than a mere statistic,” the statement said. “He was a light in his community, and his friends and family are better for having known him. Our firm is proud to represent his family in their pursuit of justice against the officer and the city responsible for this needless loss.”
No mention of the fact that a caller said that Johnson was trying to fight with employees. Listen to the tapes. No mention of the fact that politicians talk about mental health but do nothing to give us the ability to deal with the mentally ill. As usual, we fail to acknowledge that the legislature drove thousands of officers out of law enforcement with SB217. More are leaving for other states where they can still do police work. That means that we must replace officers with hastily trained officers with no experience and an exaggerated fear level. Police training is inadequate and when you put a lone officer in these types of situations, you can expect the worst. Unfortunately, we will not look at the root causes of these incidents and will instead reach for the “racism” cure. Attorney General Weiser has already done that with his consent decree. So, instead of addressing the real problems of bad legislative responses and very poor and inadequate training, we will continue down the same path. For the police officers, it will be even worse, because Weiser and others will put the decisions in front of poorly informed juries who will not understand any of the underlying factors. When they prosecute officers and never hold the legislature or the chiefs accountable, they further inhibit law enforcement’s legitimate actions. So, you will have fewer officers or many officers who refuse to take action. When we simply allow everyone to pursue their own biases and political leanings and ignore facts and realities, we make it impossible to do fair and just police work. The law is supposed to deal with facts in a just way. It its not simply a matter of emotional reaction and where you fall on the political scale.
The Sentinel isn’t known for balanced reporting. As is typical for The Sentinel, they interject their own bias in this story. They overwhelmingly convey the position of the “ViCtIm” and use inuendo and inference to deceive the reader. This lack of objectivity is exactly why The Sentinel must beg for donations.
Aurora PD, including its police chief, continue to be racist thugs
You so desperately need that to be true pumpkin.
Please, City of Aurora, not another cent to these lawyers who prey on our city because of our improper police reputation. The dead man should have been taught to listen better when a gun is pointed at him. The officer is not at fault. You want to insist to blame someone, start with the parents.