AURORA | Amid roiling controversy over undocumented allegations of widespread Venezuelan gang activity among a handful of shabby apartments in northwest Aurora, police said four shooting suspects in custody have definite or possible gang ties.
The gang identification pertains to four men arrested in July in connection with a shooting, deemed an attempted homicide.
Police were called at about 4:30 a.m. July 28 to an apartment complex at 1568 Nome St. after reports of gunfire there.
“When they arrived, they found two adult males suffering from gunshot wounds,” Aurora police spokesperson Sydney Edwards said in a statement in July. “One of the male’s injuries is life-threatening and the other is serious.”
Another man at the scene was found suffering from a broken ankle.
The next day, police said Jhonnarty DeJesus Pacheco-Chirinos, 24, of Aurora, was arrested and faced charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment.
“We can now confirm that he is a documented member of Tren de Aragua,” police said Sept. 4 in a social media post. Tren de Aragua, also known as TdA, is a Venezuelan-based gang.
Nixon Jose Azuaje-Perez, 19, and Dixon J. Azuaje-Perez, 20, both of Aurora, both face charges of tampering with physical evidence. Both, also, are suspected TdA gang members, police said.
Jhonardy Pacheco-Chirino, 22, also known as “Cookie” or “Galleta” also of Aurora, was also arrested. Police said previously that charges are pending against Pacheco-Chirinos.
“After working with our local, state and federal partners, we are now able to share those gang-related connections,” police said Wednesday night. “Both Jhonnarty and Jhonardy remain in ICE custody.”
For more than a week, Fox News, conservative social media influencers and some local media have given voice to some local city lawmakers insisting, without evidence, that Aurora has been overrun by Venezuelan gangsters wielding long guns, extorting rent payments from tenants in low-rent apartment complexes and terrorizing the city.
Meanwhile, the mostly Venezuelan migrants who live in the apartments — targeted by what local police and Colorado’s governor have said are exaggerations and outright falsehoods — say the real danger is not from gangs, but rather a property owner they describe as a “slumlord” who has let the complex fall into disrepair. Residents say they also see danger in the city of Aurora’s seeming disinterest in holding that landlord and his management company accountable, and city politicians spreading misinformation and threatening their home.
“We’re afraid of your mayor and of the cockroaches and rats in our apartments, not of gangs,” Gladis Tovav, a resident of the six-building The Edge at Lowry complex, said Tuesday through a translator.
About 50 tenants of the apartments at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street in Northwest Aurora held a news conference Tuesday in response to Mayor Mike Coffman’s assertion on Facebook Friday that the city was seeking an “emergency” court order to shut down and clear out the complex and an undisclosed number of other properties. Coffman posted that the Aurora City Attorney’s office was preparing documents to request an emergency order from municipal court declaring the properties a “criminal nuisance.”
City staff on Tuesday said the city government has not in fact sought such a court order. Councilmember Alison Coombs went further, saying “that kind of emergency order doesn’t even exist,” and noting it takes months or even years for a city to shut down an apartment complex.
That was the case with a 98-unit complex at 1568 Nome St., which the city evacuated and shuttered Aug. 13 after two years of complaints by residents, many of them also Venezuelans, about building violations including leaks, mold, and bug and rodent infestations long-unaddressed by the landlord.
That complex, called Aspen Grove, was the site of the shooting associated with the July 28 arrests.
It is owned and managed by the same interests that own and manage The Edge at Lowry. The landlord has claimed some of his buildings in Aurora have been overrun by members of Tren de Aragua.
A few hundred families have been displaced since the city shut Aspen Grove down.
Coffman and, to a greater extent, Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky have parroted the landlord — falsely, according to Aurora police and city staff — that the complex was shuttered because of TdA gang activity when in fact the reason was repeated building violations residents had long complained about.
On Tuesday, one tenant of The Edge in Lowry showed news reporters traps with mice, both dead and alive, stuck to them as proof of the problems. He and other residents said there has been no Venezuelan gang activity they know of in the complex, and that a much-publicized video from Aug. 18 showing of men with long guns and handguns surrounding a door of an apartment there involved outsiders not from the Venezuelan community.
They said that, contrary to Jurinsky’s claims, none of them had been extorted by gang members. Several showed receipts of their rental payments to the landlord, responding to the allegations.
Looks like slowly but surely, the three City Council conservatives who started this controversary who wouldn’t argue about their stance is becoming reality. Keep investigating until the criminal illegal immigrants are gone from our community.
I, personally, thank the conservatives on Council for doing such a great job in a very thankless local, outspoken, minority community including this Sentinel Blog.
How do you think our diverse “All American City” status is doing currently?
Thank you, Aurora, for closing these properties and enforcing the basic municipal standards of health, safety, and law enforcement.
They are just migrating! leave them alone
Would Dave care to revise his opinion piece?
Only gonna get worse.
Evicting whole apartment buildings with no warning or safety nets for the tenants is wrong, no matter the reason. Gangs dudn’t prevent “Slum lords” from taking steps to allievate repairs, extermanation, and other health issues.
Aurora has had gangs easily since 1980’s what ever there names, and we wern’t throwing rentersinto the streets by the building fulls. Seems like a propeganda grab for racist political parties and there cronies.
The APD rounded up 3 (maybe members) and one member of the gang cited by Jurinski. This is good, but the hyperbole with which Jurinski and the mayor announced that the gang had “overrun” the complex does nothing to stir confidence that our city is being run by competent leaders. This is especially true in light of the accounts of the residents of the apartments. Looks like Jurinski took the bait when the landlord tried to blame conditions on the gang instead of the landlord’s own neglect! One question: does this landlord provide funds to conservative council member’s election efforts?
There is nothing in this article to support the overblown claims promoted on right-wing media. The Aurora PD is about as conservative an organization as you’ll find anywhere, and even they are saying this whole thing’s being exaggerated. Time for the wingnuts to stop using Aurora for their partisan posturing.
Wow! Still sticking with the right wing outlets claim “without evidence” line? So tiresome and expected. Wonder why so many citizens regard the press with so little esteem? So many examples to cite, but alas, those defending the establishment position will say it’s “whataboutism,” so I won’t waste my time.
It’s hilarious when a moderate like Mike Coffman is considered a delusional right-winger.