Police and a murder victim’s family are hoping a $22,000 reward will help crack the 13-year-old case.
Gerald Steven Waters, 34, was gunned down June 26, 2000, in the 14100 block of East Kentucky Place, near Kentucky and South Blackhawk Way.
The investigation has largely gone nowhere since Waters’ slaying, with no arrests and few leads for investigators to follow.
Now, more than a dozen years after Waters’ death, his family has put up a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of his killer. That reward is on top of $2,000 that Metro Denver Crime Stoppers is already offering.
“If someone was afraid to come forward before for free, maybe for $22,000 they will,” said Aurora police Officer Frank Fania, a spokesman for the department.
Police released a YouTube video this summer detailing the case and asking for the public’s help, but still haven’t had any useful tips, Fania said.
A relative of Waters who is offering the reward said their intention was to show the public that a killer is still out there, unpunished for their crime.
“If they are not caught, someone else’s family is in danger, they need to be off the street,” they said.
The relative asked that their name be withheld out of fear of retribution from Waters’ killer.
According to police, the night Waters was killed he was walking with two women in an apartment complex.
Police said a dark-colored car with four people inside pulled up and Waters approached the car while the two women with him waited on the sidewalk.
Waters accused the people in the car of following him or the women he was with and the confrontation escalated.
During the confrontation, Waters ran from the car north down a sidewalk and someone in the car fired several shots.
The women were unharmed but police said several shots hit Waters, who collapsed in a field nearby. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
According to state records, Waters’ car had been stolen the night before the shooting, but it remains unclear if there was any connection between that crime and Waters’ slaying.
Waters was a known member of the Crenshaw Mafia Gangster Blood street gang and had a lengthy arrest record. According to state records, Waters had been arrested more than 20 times between his 18th birthday in 1984 and his death 16 years later. The charges included assault, carrying a concealed weapon, felony drug possession and burglary.
He served at least three prison sentences starting in 1990, and at the time of his death he was wearing an ankle monitor as a condition of his probation on drug charges.
Still, Waters’ family said his past crimes do not mean he deserved to be gunned down and his killer allowed to walk free.
“He wasn’t a piece of trash, he was loved,” they said. “That’s not the issue here, it’s an issue of loss of life and the safety of other citizens out there.”
Fania said an experienced cold-case detective is now running the investigation. Police are asking anyone with information about the case to call 303-739-6190. Callers can remain anonymous and still be eligible for the reward.
Not many will remember the Bennett family, murdered in their home. I can’t remember the year but it’s been many, many years. The police did all they could, but no one has ever been charged with this tragic loss of a family. One child survived.