Police-shooting protest back at Aurora City Council, but with less rancor

AURORA | Aurora’s City Council made it through its first uninterrupted meeting in almost two months without retreating behind closed doors to block out protesters.

At the insistence of Councilmember Crystal Murillo, Mayor Mike Coffman let all 23 people who signed up to comment at Monday evening’s public meeting say their piece. Most had come, as they have every council meeting since June 24, to renounce the May 23 shooting of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man shot by Aurora SWAT Officer Michael Dieck on May 23. Lewis, 37, died two days later from his wounds.

Several of Lewis’s family members were among the speakers urging council members to force law enforcement to speed up their investigation, fire Dieck — who is on paid leave during the probe — and criminally charge him for Lewis’ killing.

City officials have explained, repeatedly, that’s not how police shootings are handled in Aurora, and that due process, as slow as it may be, must take its course. 

“You guys should be very nervous, I’m coming for ya’ll,” Lewis’ wife, Anndrec Lewis, told the council.

“Do your job…” LaRonda Jones, Lewis’ mother, later added. 

Other advocates for Lewis’s family asked council members to stand if they believed Lewis should still be alive. Noticing that Coffman and City Manager Jason Batchelor refused to do so, one speaker told them “your day in hell is coming soon.” 

At the end of the meeting, Batchelor said he stayed seated not because of a lack of sympathy toward the family, but because as the city’s top administrator he is likely to have a hand in determining Dieck’s future on the force, and he has been advised to behave neutrally. Coffman made no comment. 

At several meetings since June, some protesters exceeded their allotted three minutes of speaking time, and Coffman reacted to their catcalls and insults by cutting public comments short and moving the proceedings to a secluded room where the council conducted its business via live-streaming rather than in person.

Because those who had signed up to speak on Monday stayed within their time limits, the mayor allowed the full hour of public comments, and then some, without cutting protesters off. 

“All we want is to be heard. We attend the Aurora City Council meetings to raise awareness about the unjust murder of Kilyn E. Lewis. Tonight, we saw a glimpse of what we’ve been asking for,” Auon’tai M. Anderson, a former Denver School Board member who was among the protesters, posted on X (formerly Twitter) after the meeting.

Still, Anderson blasted Coffman and Batchelor for remaining “seated during this simple plea to their humanity.”

“We will return on the 26th,” he posted.

In other council news Monday, the majority conservative council approved an ordinance exempting Aurora from a new state law banning possession of firearms in government buildings. The measure will allow council members, city staff and the public to continue bringing concealed weapons to council meetings and other proceedings at city hall, which increasingly have been marked by vitriol, infighting and outbursts with and among the public.

The city previously banned unconcealed, or “open carry” guns from city hall in 2015, and will continue to do so. 

Councilmember Curtis Gardner proposed the exemption as a symbolic reaction against increasing state gun control laws and as a matter of what he sees as local control. 

The council also passed a resolution approving the purchase of 1,606 acres of the Badger Basin Ranch in Park County from Frank Wolthuis for $3,483,303. The land will be used to build the Wild Horse Reservoir. According to the project’s website, the reservoir “would store up to 93,000 acre-feet of water” and is “needed to improve Aurora Water’s system reliability and resiliency; help expand its potable reuse to meet future water needs; and provide water management flexibility during droughts or system emergencies.”

​​The deal includes well rights, and will allow the city to take possession of the land in September.

In their non-voting study session, council members directed city staff to devise a plan to move domestic violence cases out of Municipal Court and into local county and district courts, beginning in July 2025.

There are about 2,400 active cases in the city, with 618 docketed in court, city officials say.

Mayor Pro Tem Dustin Zvonek has argued that shifting those cases out of the city’s jurisdiction would save tax dollars that could otherwise be spent prosecuting and adjudicating cases. 

“I think it’s in Aurora taxpayers’ best interest,” he said Monday.

Councilmember Angela Lawson expressed concerns that the shift to county court could negatively impact victims and that cases could “fall through the cracks.”

“This is a big transition,” she said. 

“I still don’t agree that it’s the right move,” added Councilmember Murillo. 

Opponents of the shift see it as the council majority’s latest attempt to gut Aurora’s public defender’s office. They also counter that there are not enough county judges to hear domestic violence cases, that the plan has not had sufficient public input, and that the issue should be tabled until a new judicial district is created and a new district attorney takes office, both in January.

Aurora was one of the first cities in the nation to try domestic violence cases in municipal courts as a way to speed up justice for victims. Zvonek’s proposal comes after the passage of a new state law banning cities from dismantling their public defender units if they handle domestic violence cases in court.

Also in its study session, the council directed city staff to move forward drafting a plan to reduce homelessness the city. The proposal would not just provide temporary housing at a so-called “regional navigation center” on a hotel and convention center complex the city bought on Aurora’s northern border with Denver. It emphasizes mandatory addiction recovery, mental health treatment and job training programs that underscore the need for self-sufficiency. 

It would take a three-tier approach. The first would provide participants with day shelter, meals, showers, laundry, pet shelter, mail, coaching, and case management.

The second would provide semi-private sleeping arrangements, personal storage, more meal options, less crowded facilities, and a dedicated case manager to participants engaged in treatment and job training programs.

The third would provide private rooms, cleaning and laundry services for up to two years to participants who manage to get jobs and are willing to pay a program fee equal to 30% of their monthly income.

Zvonek said he hopes the approach serves as a model for other cities. 

In executive session Monday afternoon, the council discussed, among other issues, the recruitment of a new city attorney to replace Dan Brotzman, who stepped down earlier this summer after more than four years in that position.

The city has completed a national search for his replacement and council members are scheduled to interview finalists for the position later this month.