The new ‘hybrid’ gang ties that bind in Aurora

AURORA | From 2015 to 2016, gang-related crime in Aurora dipped about 15 percent, according to Aurora police statistics.

But as the department’s 11-person Gang Unit sees gang crime in general dip — a dip that came even as overall crime in Aurora climbed from 2015 to 2016 — they say they’re facing a new challenge: so-called “hybrid gangs” made up of generally younger gangsters with ties to other more-established gangs. The gangs don’t have the iron-clad loyalties or rivalries that gang members from previous generations did, police say, which can make tracking them and even determining whether they are a gang or just a group of young people particularly tough for investigators.

“It’s very different than what we have seen in the past,” said Sgt. Mark Hildebrand, who oversees the department’s Gang Unit.

And, Hildebrand said, the youth of their membership — often as young as 12 but generally juveniles — adds another wrinkle.

“They’re kids, they haven’t developed as a lot of adults have in their reasoning and decision making,” he said during an interview at APD’s District No. 1 in North Aurora, which houses the unit. “They are very impulsive, there is no loyalty to anyone”

With one particular hybrid gang — which Gang Unit investigators have linked to more than 200 crimes — police said they weren’t certain at first exactly what the group was. Initially, police said they were just a group of students from Overland High School who in 2014 wanted to be rappers. But then, the group started to behave much more like a typical street gang.

They adopted a set of colors. And their members all had an affinity for specific brands of high-end clothing and sneakers. They even had a hand signal similar to those used by gangs from generations passed and started to develop a hierarchy.

And the crime came, too.

From 2015 to 2016, police say they have pinned 232 crimes on the group, including six aggravated assaults, four shootings, eight burglaries, 15 robberies and 10 weapons offenses.

The most high-profile of those, police said, came in summer 2016 when a 10-year-old boy was shot to death while playing with his brother’s gun. The boy’s brother, Jalecc Taylor, had ties to the gang, police said, and was later sentenced to two years intensive probation.

But for the gang unit, identifying these new gangs presents challenges beyond simply identifying them and separating them from other groups of young people that may not be criminal enterprises.

While gangs in years passed had pretty clear rivalries with other gangs, these gangs tend not to, police say. Their rivalries can be all over the place and might even include other gang members they share ties with, Hildebrand said. 

“You kind of treat it as they are feuding with everyone,” he said.

The Rev. Leon Kelly, executive director of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives in Denver, said he has seen a similar spike in “hybrid gangs.”

Kelly, who has been working to lead young people out of gang life for 30 years, said that in many cases the young people drawn to these gangs have parents who are already in a gang. While they might have ties to their parent’s gang, they may not have any particular allegiance to it.

And, Kelly said, the younger gang members behave like young people.

“Many of the youngsters are just sort of reckless,” he said.

For police, Hildebrand said another challenge the gangs pose is proving that they are in fact a criminal enterprise as opposed to some other group.

That’s where the ability of the unit to gather intelligence — — is so crucial, he said.

On a recent rainy afternoon, officers from the Gang Unit cruised around town hoping to speak some known gangsters at a handful of spots frequented by gang members. That included scoping out a vehicle owned by a known gang member parked in a north Aurora parking lot and slowly rolling past  a convenience store and apartment complex near East Mississippi Avenue and Sable Boulevard that the officers say are know hotbeds of gang activity.

The goal, gang officers say, isn’t necessarily to make arrests — though they often do search the gang members they speak to -— as much as it’s about gathering details about who might have guns and who could be feuding with who.

That intelligence that the officers gather is vital, Hilldebrand said.

Another key piece to finding out what gangs are active and what new gangs are popping up are the “debriefing” interviews officers conduct with a gang member following an arrest, he said.

“These are everywhere throughout the nation,” he said. “Everywhere has these challenges with these gangs.”