AURORA | Although there is not much on the City Council’s Monday evening agenda, there will be a lot happening at city hall tonight.
Tonight’s city council meeting will be the last for outgoing council members Danielle Jurinsky, Amsalu Kassaw, Steve Sundberg and Crystal Murillo before new members Alli Jackson, Rob Andrews, Gianina Horton and Amy Wiles take their place. The results of the election earlier this month will remake the political makeup of the dais.
Two groups tonight say they’re coming to city hall to draw focus to two different causes. A group of students from across Arapahoe County want to address city lawmakers about youth vaping and using tobacco products.
Separate from that, a group of families “whose loved ones have been killed, harmed or devastated by systemic injustice,” will gather at Aurora City Center at 5 p.m. for a press conference to demand meaningful enforcement of the Aurora Consent Decree, preventive state legislation on police violence, and to tell the new city council members that “they were not elected to return Aurora to the past or maintain the current broken conditions,” according to a statement.
Family members of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield, Kilyn Lewis and Kory Dillard, who were all killed by Aurora police officers. Family and friends of Jalin Seabron, who was killed by a Douglas County deputy and Joseph Jones, who was struck by a hit-and-run a year ago, will also be there along with MiDian Shofner, a consistent activist who has been demanding police reform in Aurora and surrounding areas for years.
“Aurora remains one of the most egregious examples of state violence and systemic harm in Colorado’s recent history,” Shofner said in the statement. “From police brutality to institutional failures that have left families without answers and without justice, Aurora stands as ground zero for the crisis we are naming. This moment demands public presence, public accountability, and public truth.”
Belt-Stubblefield, 37, was killed Aug. 30 after what started as a traffic stop that turned into a two-car accident and confrontation between Belt-Stubblefield and the officer, which involved Belt-Stubblefield tossing a gun into a grass area, and ended with the officer shooting Belt-Stubblefield three times while Belt-Stubblefield was no longer holding the gun.
Kilyn Lewis, 37, was killed while being arrested by an Aurora SWAT unit May 23, 2024, in connection with a Denver shooting. Lewis raised his hands above his head, holding his cell phone in one hand. Aurora police SWAT officer Michael Dieck fired one fatal shot at Lewis. During later investigations, Dieck said he mistook the cell phone for a gun during the arrest.
Kory Dillard, 37, was killed by an Aurora officer Oct. 3, 2024, after he brought out an airsoft gun that looked like an AK-47 to get an acquaintance to leave his apartment complex after a confrontation between the two. While he was walking around the parking lot of the complex, multiple witnesses called the police to say a man was walking around with an AK-47 and pointing it at people. Dillard had locked himself out of his apartment with the gun in hand, and while he was talking to a neighbor to ask them to let him in, the police arrived and yelled at him to drop the weapon. Dillard, looking distracted, lifted and pointed the gun at the officer, causing him to shoot and kill Dillard.
Jalin Seabron, 23, was shot and killed by a deputy in Douglas County Feb. 8 outside the Main Event arcade bar in Highlands Ranch. A fight and shooting broke out inside the bar. Seabron was not the one who fired shots inside the bar. When the deputy showed up, he saw Seabron pointing a gun at multiple people. He yelled commands to Seabron, who did not comply, and then the deputy shot Seabron seven times after Seabron pointed his gun at the deputy.
Joseph Jones, 40, was said to be struck by a car Nov. 15, 2024, at 10:45 p.m. at North Sable Boulevard and East Ellsworth Avenue, according to a witness. While Jones was lying in the street, he was struck by an RTD bus and dragged 1,000 feet without the driver realizing it, according to police and RTD reports. No news organization, except the Denver Post, reported on it, including the Sentinel, which was also unable to find the media alert in archived emails. Aurora Police issued a statement that said they did send a media alert out about it, and they were unable to ask for help in finding the hit-and-run vehicle because they were unable to find any evidence of Jones being hit before he was lying in the street.
On the Agenda
During the city council meeting on Monday, lawmakers will consider a proposal to eliminate the city’s Veterans’ Affairs Commission. Also on the agenda, the Public Defenders Commission’s three appointees will be considered and new appointments for the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board and the Arts and Culture Commission will be decided.
The Veterans’ Affairs Commission elimination proposal follows the city council nearly eliminating the commissioner previously, and then deciding to make the meetings quarterly. The agenda said that during a Veterans Affairs Commission meeting Oct. 9, the commissioners voted and supported city council to disband the commission.
Along with boards and commissions, city council will decide whether to implement an earned wellness program for the Aurora Police Department, vote on a resolution that would encourage restaurants to have people ask for water, along with the second reading of ​​a Unified Development Ordinance that will allow all of Aurora more flexibility with zoning and infill opportunities like accessory dwelling units, will be allowed on unused parts of lots.
Everyone ready for crime to rise? Cause it’s gonna