EDITOR’S NOTE: Be advised that the officer worn video contains graphic language and graphic shooting violence.
AURORA | An Aurora police officer faces a murder charge for the fatal shooting of a Black man during a traffic stop last year.
On Monday, an Arapahoe County grand jury indicted Aurora Police officer Matthew Neely, 54, on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter related to the 2025 fatal shooting of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield. Neely is on unpaid administrative leave, according to the Aurora Police Department.
Neely is not being held in jail, having posted a $200,000 bond. His next court date is Aug. 17.
A statement from Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said he would not comment on the merits of the case, but did support police more generally. He thanked Aurora’s officers for keeping the community safe.
“Police officers are routinely called on to address – sometimes in seconds – dangerous and rapidly evolving situations they did not create,” Chamberlain said. “I am confident that all the facts will be fully examined through due process. As with any case, these filing charges are not a determination of guilt.”
Last year, Chamberlain created controversy at a press conference by defending Neely’s actions during the shooting.
The indictment alleges Neely did not tell Belt-Stubblefield that he was under arrest and Neely did not give an immediate warning to Belt-Stubblefield that he would be shot before firing because Neely wanted to maintain an “element of surprise.”
In conclusion, the grand jury said in its indictment that “Mr. Belt-Stubblefield never verbally threatened to harm (Neely), nor made any overt acts to disarm (Neely) or to rearm himself.
The Aurora and Rocky Mountain NAACP commended the indictment in a joint statement, noting this is the start of a long legal process to get “equal justice under the law.”
“Our eyes and ears will remain alert to the legal process to ensure justice prevails for Rajon and our community that has suffered injustice for so long,” the statement reads. “While we are thankful for the reduction of various crimes in our city, that in no way can compensate for or offset any unjust injuring or killing of the members of our Black community.”
A statement from the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership, a community group that has supported Belt-Stubblefield’s family after his death, said the indictment shows that “no badge should place a person above the law.”
“An indictment is not the end of the journey,” the statement said. “It is the beginning of a public process that will test whether our justice system is willing to apply the same standards to law enforcement that it applies to every other member of our community.”
Attorneys for Belt-Stubblefield’s family notified the city in February they intended to sue Aurora for wrongful death, seeking more than $20 million in damages.
City council members met in a suddenly called executive session Monday at noon to discuss matters related to police litigation, including the Belt-Stubblefield family’s lawsuit against the city, according to city officials.
Neely was previously accused of inappropriate actions as an officer
Neely was disciplined after an Arapahoe County judge found he and another officer gave testimony that was inconsistent with body-camera video during a hearing in a burglary case, according to an Aurora Police internal affairs investigation.
The investigation stemmed from a May 2, 2019, ruling by an 18th Judicial District Court judge, who concluded that Neely and Officer Paul Timmons were not credible witnesses during a motions hearing in a district court case.
“Officer Timmons and Officer Neely are not credible,” the judge said from the bench, according to an internal affairs summary obtained by the Sentinel in 2023. “They testified inconsistent with the video that the Court observed, so the Court finds that their other testimony regarding what happened when the video is not on is not credible and the Court is not willing to believe any of it.”
The judge also ruled that the defendant’s arrest was unlawful and that officers used a level of force that was not justified by the circumstances.
“The Court finds that those — just that a felony may have occurred is not specific enough facts for the officers to use the degree of force associated with an arrest such as what was used here,” the judge said.
The judge further found that officers violated the defendant’s constitutional rights by detaining, searching and questioning him without legal justification.
According to the judge and his ruling, the defendant was effectively under arrest before Neely got out of his patrol car and was immediately interrogated without the protections required under Miranda. The judge also found officers had no specific reason to believe the defendant was armed or dangerous before searching his pockets.
The Aurora Police Department opened an internal affairs investigation into possible violations of department policies governing truthfulness, conduct, job performance, use of force and constitutional requirements.
Aurora police investigators found that neither Neely nor Timmons had reviewed their body-camera footage before writing their reports or testifying in court. As a result, the investigation concluded, portions of their testimony did not match the video evidence.
The internal investigation also reviewed the officers’ use of force, which consisted of forcing the suspect to the ground twice.
According to the report, the officers notified a supervisor as required by department policy. The supervising sergeant, however, determined the force was reasonable because the officers used the “minimum force necessary to prevent injury in icy conditions.”
The report said the suspect was not injured and described him as agitated, uncooperative, refusing commands and asking officers to kill him.
Then-acting Police Chief Paul O’Keefe sustained some of the court allegations, stating that Neely violated department policies on conduct unbecoming and unsatisfactory performance.
However, O’Keefe did not sustain allegations that Neely violated police policies prohibiting false or untruthful declarations, governing use of force or requiring compliance with constitutional standards.
The internal affairs document did not specify the disciplinary action imposed on either officer.
At the time of the Sentinel investigation, Neely was not registered as an employed officer with the state POST board for any Colorado police agency. Aurora police officials said Neely was first hired in 2002 as a recruit and retired from the office in 2023. He was rehired in March 2024.
The Belt-Stubblefield shooting
Multiple videos of Belt-Stubblefield’s shooting, including the officer’s body-worn camera, provided prolific detail of how the shooting unfolded, but raised numerous questions as well.
The Aug. 30 traffic-stop-turned-car-crash and subsequent shooting of Belt-Stubblefield unfolded near East Sixth Avenue and Billings Street as numerous cars rolled past and witnesses inside and outside of cars watched events unfold.
The officer body cam video reveals a relatively brief and aggressive encounter. From the time the officer pulls behind Belt-Stubblefield, until the officer fires the first shot, less than three minutes elapse.
Videos released confirmed not only how Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain previously said the incident played out, but the videos also pose questions raised by the family and attorneys.
In a narrated video, Agent Matthew Longshore, public information officer for Aurora, stated that the officer attempted to pull Belt-Stufflefield over for speeding.
“An officer assigned to the traffic section was conducting speed enforcement along East Sixth Avenue as part of a Labor Day DUI operation,” Longshore said. “The officer was parked near Toledo Street when he observed a vehicle speeding.”
The officer pulls out onto East Sixth Avenue and attempts to initiate a traffic stop by turning on his lights and siren, Longshore said, which is also what is shown in the body-worn footage.
In the body camera footage, what appears to be Belt-Stubblefield’s car can be seen driving faster than the cars behind it, but when the officer pulls out, the camera does not have a view over the dashboard.
In the body-worn camera footage, the officer clicks something twice on his chest and reads out what sounds like a license plate number, but he does not call in any additional information to dispatch.
Longshore said the suspect’s vehicle does not immediately pull over after the officer activated his squad car lights and sirens, also seen in the officer body-cam video.
Previously, Chamberlain said the ensuing car crash did not come after a pursuit, but about 1 minute 20 seconds elapses from the time the officer pulls out to stop Belt-Stubblefield and when the officer drives up on the crashed car.
The video shows the officer speeding up and turning on full lights and sirens some time before arriving at the I-225 underpass.
In separate dash-camera footage provided to the police department by a civilian, Belt-Subblefield can be seen swerving and crashing into a vehicle, then hopping over the median in his vehicle and hitting a second oncoming vehicle.
The body camera footage shows the officer driving fast down East Sixth Avenue until he arrives at the Sinclair gas station, near Billings Street, where Belt-Stubblefield is sitting in his car in the oncoming traffic lane after he crashed.
The officer gets out of his vehicle and immediately approaches Belt-Stubblefield with his gun drawn and tells him to “stay in your car,” and “don’t move,” while Belt-Stubblefield’s car is smoking. The officer then radio’s dispatch to report the crash and its location.
As he’s still pointing the gun at Belt-Subblefield, the officer tells him to “give me your hands, show me your hands, get your hands up, dude.” Belt-Stubblefield’s music is loudly playing in the car, and he opens his door as the officer is yelling commands.
Belt-Stubblefield gets out of the car and tells the officer, saying, “‘Don’t shoot me,” in what sounds like an almost casual or familiar way.
After Belt-Stubblefield gets out of the car, he starts walking away from the officer toward the side of the road, as the officer orders him to put his hands up again. Belt-Stubblefield continues walking toward a grassy area, as shown in several camera footage angles, and he then throws a gun into the grass.
The officer grabs the man’s shirt and pulls him to the ground, trying to put him into a handcuffing position. There is some commotion that is difficult to distinguish, and then the camera footage shows Belt-Stubblefield getting up, standing over the officer, and then Belt-Stubblefield starts to walk away.
The officer gets up, points his gun at Belt-Stubblefield and yells, “Get on the ground, get away from that mother f****** gun.” He pushed Belt-Stubblefield and said, “Get on the ground now.”
Belt-Stubblefield looks back at his son, who was following him in a separate car and had walked to the scene, and he tells his son, “Get that shit,” while walking toward the officer. Belt-Subblefield says it about nine more times, while the officer says, “I’ll shoot you.”
Meanwhile, his son, behind him, says, “Dad, chill, no. Dad,” and then says, “Officer, chill.” Belt-Stubblefield turns again to say, “Get that shit,” as the officer punches him on the side of the head. Belt-Stubblefield gets into a fighting stance, as Chamberlain previously described, and he says, “Are you ready for this?” While his son kept saying, “Dad, no!”
He asked the officer three more times if he was ready for it, and he sounds as if he is slurring his words. The officer told hom twice more to get on the ground, and the last time, he repeats it while backing up onto the street. He then shoots Belt-Stubblefield twice in the chest. As Belt-Stubblefield stops, he stoots one more time at his head, and Belt-Stubblefield drops to the ground.
The officer stood pointing his gun at Belt-Stubblefield’s body as he called in to dispatch and says, “Shots fired.”
He stands there for a while as Belt-Stubblefield’s son moves around yelling in shock. As he begins to move the unconscious body of Belt-Stubblefield, a woman who looks like she might have a hospital badge clipped to her shirt offers a tourniquet to the officer as he stands over Belt-Stubblefield with his gun still drawn and pointed at him, but the officer refuses.
It takes two minutes for other officers to arrive at the scene and start performing life-saving measures on Belt-Stubblefield. The woman, who offered her help, is seen handing the officers the tourniquet and then attempting chest compressions on Belt-Stubblefield.
Most of the remaining footage reveals the trauma that many of the witnesses experienced during the unfolding of the scene.
The footage was released 72 hours after the family viewed it, as required by Colorado law. The police department stated that it would not provide any additional information once the footage was released.
A few days after the shooting, Chamberlain defended Neely, saying that Belt-Stubblefield prompted the shooting with his behavior.
“I wish that the suspect would have listened to what the officer said,” Chamberlain said during a press conference after the shooting. “Again, these are decisions, and these are things that he decided. This is not what the officer decided, it’s what the suspect decided.”
Aurora police are currently under a consent decree imposed by the state Attorney General Phil Weiser, after a 2022 investigation determined the department has for years exhibited “patterns and practices” of using excessive force against the public, especially people of color.
Padden’s office announced she would take the case to a grand jury earlier this year.