AURORA | Gov. Jared Polis cast doubt Thursday on the extent of Venezuelan gang violence alleged in Aurora, slamming elected city officials for spreading false news and urging them to refrain from stoking public fears.
“He really hopes that the city council members in charge stop trashing their own city when they are supposed to keep it safe,” Polis’ spokesperson Shelby Wieman said Thursday in a statement to the Sentinel.
Both Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Councilmember Daniel Jurinsky have made rounds on national national right-wing media channels over the past two days about what they perceive as the dangers Venezuelan migrants pose in their city.
“We know violent crime in Aurora went down between 2022-2023, fully expect the data will show further declines for 2024,” Weiman said, “and the recent misinformation campaign threatens actual criminal investigations and could hurt the climate for small businesses in Aurora.”
Weiman added that Polis is in regular contact with a variety of law enforcement agencies about the potential threat posed by suspected members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang otherwise known as TdA. The group’s reported presence in the city has been the subject of headlines on Fox News and other national news outlets in recent days and has triggered viral, sky-is-falling chatter on conservative social media.
In the meantime, the Aurora Police Department’s silence about alarming claims by Jurinsky, Coffman and Republican congressional candidate John Fabbricatore from Aurora has left the public trying to figure out what’s true about the potential gang threat and what amounts to political grandstanding pushing an anti-immigrant narrative.
“We don’t know if we should, like, pack up our bags and book on out of here, or if this is one of those hoax kind of things,” Mia Lucero, a neighbor of one of the apartment complexes TdA allegedly has overrun in northwest Aurora, told the Sentinel Thursday.
Jurinsky and Fabbricatore started fanning fears about Venezuelan migrants and gang members on social media earlier this summer. Their cries grew louder when they exaggerated the crowd number and level of violence at a meet-up of Venezuelan migrants in the parking lot of an Aurora shopping center on July 28, the day of Venezuela’s contested presidential election. Their alarms continued earlier this month when Aurora shut down an apartment complex with Venezuelan residents because of health and safety code violations the landlord had long ignored.
APD has stayed quiet about how much of a threat is posed by TdA, saying only that it is part of a regional task force of local and federal officials investigating organized crime and urging the public – including Venezuelans – to report gang activity.
“I don’t think Venezuelan gangs are a big safety concern in the city of Aurora,” Chris Juul, the acting deputy police chief told the Sentinel earlier this month, referring to reported incidents as isolated.
However, the department has not answered basic questions about the trio’s claims, most recently about an apartment complex at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street called the Edge at Lowry.
In front of a video crew from Denver Fox affiliate KDVR Channel 31 on Wednesday, Jurinsky and Fabbricatore helped a woman, Cindy Romero, move out of the complex because of what she described as violence and intimidation by TdA. Romero’s son gave the station surveillance video footage he told them he took of what he, the politicians and the station claim are gang members climbing the stairs of his mother’s building with long guns and handguns in hand. Another clip appears to show men kicking in an apartment door, possibly in the same building.
APD has not said whether it has verified the authenticity of the video, when it was taken and whether laws were broken or arrests were made in connection to the incident.
Police have also has not responded to the Sentinel’s questions about Jurinsky’s assertions that TdA is “overrunning” apartment complexes in Aurora, elbowing out property managers and demanding tenants pay their rent to the gang directly, extorting residents, and leaving APD incapable of controlling the situation.
Nor would the department – whose incoming chief Todd Chamberlain has said he’s not familiar with TdA – provide police records pertaining to the apartment complex. Chamberlain will be the department’s seventh chief in five years and has promised transparency once he swears in on Sept. 9.
Of Fabbricatore and Jurinsky’s on-camera effort helping Romero move out of her apartment Wednesday, Fabbricatore told the Sentinel that Aurora police “showed up with about five cars” to protect and accompany them.
“I think Danielle may have given them a call on the way there. I think Danielle gave them a heads up. Knowing an Aurora councilwoman would be there, I think they thought it was the best recourse to put a couple cars out there,” he said.
Among the questions APD has not answered are why police would act as a bodyguard service for a council member and a woman she chose to help move, and whether the police force has offered similar service to all residents in the complex.
The department also hasn’t, as requested, provided records pertaining to the buildings.
Fabbricatore, a retired ICE agent, describes TdA’s presence in Aurora as “huge,” and calls it “a shock to the system that this kind of thing is happening in America.” He laments that some skeptics doubt the threat the influx of Venezuelan migrants over the past two years has posed to Aurora.
“There are still people on X who don’t believe the video is real,” he said. “They were speaking Spanish in the video. Like someone went out and found a bunch of Venezuelan guys and put guns in their hands? That’s bullcrap.”
Fabbricatore jabbed at U.S. Rep Jason Crow, the incumbent he is challenging in November for the 6th Congressional District seat, for not addressing the violence he perceives among Venezuelans.
“He’s ignoring his district. He has become part of the D.C. elite. And when he’s been called out to say something about this, he doesn’t say anything.”
Crow’s spokesperson did not comment on Fabbricatore’s allegations at press time.
Coffman, a former Republican congressman and outspoken critic of U.S. immigration policy, had stayed comparatively quiet about potential Venezuelan gang activity in the city he has led since 2019. That is, until he appeared Thursday on national Fox News, whose anchor hyped up the danger in Aurora.
Coffman vacillated on Thursday. He confirmed that a gang had “taken over” a few apartment complexes in the city, yet he wouldn’t say they were in fact part of TdA.
He tried to temper the picture of mass lawlessness Fox painted of Aurora, saying, “It’s certainly not the whole city” and that TdA’s leader in Colorado – a figure Jurinsky and conservative news outlets have referred to as “Cookie Monster” – has been arrested and is in police custody.
Still, Coffman agreed with Fox’s anchor that “It’s very serious, nonetheless” and, “It’s a terrible situation.’
Hours later, after Polis publicly criticized him, Coffman toned down his message on NEXT on 9News, calling descriptions of the problem “an incredible exaggeration.”
“We’re in some sort of environment of hysteria over this. It’s a real issue. It’s being dealt with. It’s isolated,” he told news reporter Kyle Clark.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said Fox News and other reporters where wildly inaccurate about the scope of what he, too, said are isolated incidents.
Coffman said that Aurora “did everything we could to quite frankly keep” Venezuelan migrants “out of the city,“ and suggested the federal government nevertheless worked with local nonprofits, behind the city’s back. to “put them there.” He went on to say the migrant influx is “Not our problem,” but rather a federal problem.
“They need to resolve it, not us. But somehow we got sucked into this,” he said.
But but but we were clearly told there was no gang crime evidence found at this apartment complex. This must be a fabricated video.
Per Denver Gazette “Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman acknowledged on Thursday that Venezuelan gangs have taken control of several apartment complexes in the northern part of the city in what he called “a nightmare situation.”
Aurora has a serious infestation of fascists at city hall. The hysteria wouldn’t have happened under Mayor Hogan, who was a kind and caring man despite being a Republican. May he rest in peace, and may God help our city out of this mess.
Yes, to marxists, anyone who doesn’t go along with their agenda is a fascist. Maybe we shouldn’t have put the former on the city council starting in 2017.
Well, I read an account on 9 news about some moron who identifies as a street artist putting out racist signs about migrants and blacks near busses. This is exactly what Jurinsky, Sundberg, Coffman, and Fabbricatore ginning up a unproven story does. It brings out nut cases and makes Aurora look trashy. Way to go, city council!
LOL, yeah, if it’s one thing conservatives are known for, it’s “street art.” Meanwhile, you and your side are indulging in full-blown gaslighting trying to convince everyone not to believe their lying eyes.
Shush your mouth, Squealer.
Has Gov Polis seen the “imaginary” video of gang takeover in the apartment building? Why is he covering his political butt when these people are suffering? So disappointing.
That is so typical of Polis. Gaslighting the people of the state because his administration caused the problem along with that UBER leftist Johnson.
Unbelievable that this is happening in the USA 😭 God help us all
So nice of Jurinsky help someone move, especially with a police escort for the heavy lifting. I have a friend moving this weekend. Do you think she’ll come over with the move-out-cops if I tell her my friend is moving because of gang activity? If it would help to bring her out, we could make a video of showing an attempted break in and dub it with Canadian voice overs. That’s about as diverse our our neighborhood gets. But those lumberjacks are fearsome and want to impose socialism on us. So, there’s that.
is youre friends apartment building overran by venezuelan gangs? if they are they should definitely call the police or council member for help
Well you aloud this to happen you and the democrats aloud this !! What I want to know how much is it cost to sell your soul thise days ?
It’s allowed not aloud. It’s also not true. Do you live here?
Where there’s smoke there’s fire. The responsibility of ferreting through to whatever level this “takeover” is making the police hot sheets is not going to go away anytime soon. It’s obvious the resistance coming from the State Capitol with statements from the governor this is an illusionary gang problem only lives in the minds of Council Jurinsky in Aurora, and John Fabbricatore. Despite the recent Douglas County auto thieves with 17 stolen cars 11 arrested, half were Venezuelan nationals, guess where they were living? Aurora, on Dallas Street. These disturbing videos coming out now from inside these Aurora apartments. A block long Nome Street apartment, active with these gangsters. A recent murder, too much crime to list, a city dispatch policy of a mandatory minimum of three officers to be there for any APD 911 call attached with strict orders to the 1568 Nome Street address. Now all or most tenants evicted for one reason or another, wards of the city of Aurora for their living quarters. Perhaps full room and board, everybody’s welcome, no questions asked, Yea, Gov Jerry Polis, not much to see here. It’s all illusional.
From perusing this screed me thinketh this is a left leaning Pravda Media rag.
“Both Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Councilmember Daniel Jurinsky have made rounds on national national right-wing media channels over the past two days about what they perceive as the dangers Venezuelan migrants pose in their city.”
“Jurinsky and Fabbricatore started fanning fears about Venezuelan migrants and gang members on social media earlier this summer”
Fox is not a legitimate news outlet. Neither is MSNBC. We need to give up these “run-to-your-corner” propaganda networks. All news outlets are overly skewed toward being first in breaking salacious stories. Fox is particularly skewed and has a massive judgment against them to show for it. Jurinsky wants nothing more than to be a media star like Marjory Taylor Greene. I’ll wait for the new chief to get up to speed and weigh in. I’m certainly not listening to stories that are geared to gin up fear and uncertainty without any hard verifiable evidence. The council needs to work on problems within the city, not build fear over living in Aurora!
Will from what you said and the words you used you clearly let known your political view points and what party you stand with. Way to go! Now on a serious not. You should be concerned what the immigration is causing. What if these issue spread to your town? Your back yard? Then what would you say or even do?
You as an American should be concern. Does not matter political views or who you support and who you don’t. Americans in general should want to protect each other just as much as helping each other in a disaster situation.
Will from what you said and the words you used you clearly let known your political view points and what party you stand with. Way to go! Now on a serious not. You should be concerned what the immigration is causing. What if these issue spread to your town? Your back yard? Then what would you say or even do?
You as an American should be concern. Does not matter political views or who you support and who you don’t. Americans in general should want to protect each other just as much as helping each other in a disaster situation.
Will from what you said and the words you used you clearly let known your political view points and what party you stand with. Way to go! Now on a serious note. You should be concerned what the immigration is causing. What if these issue spread to your town? Your back yard? Then what would you say or even do?
You as an American should be concern. Does not matter political views or who you support and who you don’t. Americans in general should want to protect each other just as much as helping each other in a disaster situation.
I’ve got a few reasons to dislike Fox but there’s no comparison between them and the Pravda Media. Zero. None. Nada. Zilch.
Bottom like it’s all about knowing how to READ and studying the issues. BOTH sides of the issues as when I eat the leftist screeds for breakfast in my morning reading. And COMPARE.
Here’s a neat thing I like to do. Ask the idiots “What do you read?” and then sit back and wait for the pleasant sound of crickets chirping.
Feel free to steal and share:
You have to be a special kind of MORON to vote for a member of the Democrat Communist-Marxist Party that is obscenely joined at the hip with a working definition of the Pravda Media. Literally voting to destroy your own country.
True & I agree wholeheartedly that if only the American taxpaying public would educate themselves instead of entertaining themselves constantly then perhaps the outrage may be heard loud a clear when casting an informed vote this November.
Living in a blue state myself, I’ve come to realize the crime rates are false positives in that most blue state laws have modified to the point that theft, rape, & even murder suspects are released with a court date back into the community. This keeps the crime rates seem lower when in truth, they are false positives.
There’s no comparison between Fox and what is now a working definition of a Pravda Media obscenely joined at the hip with a now Democrat Communist-Marxist Party. Along with Stalinist censors.
I grew up surrounded by the Greatest Generation watching Walter Cronkite and Huntley & Brinkley. Was a long-haired hippie in the 70s and probably voted for Jimmy Carter in the 80s…. Like an idiot.
We have this corrupt party now normalizing pedophilia, Sick Freaks preying on children in SCHOOLS and Nazi level sexual butchery on children. It pisses me off that more people aren’t kicking over the furniture over what’s been happening since that card carrying Marxist was elected to the White House. I could go on and on and on.
If you want to keep the city safe, you need more cops and to exercise broken windows policing, which is the last thing the people who live on that side of town want. It isn’t any different from the gangs in El Salvador getting so bad that Bukele had to go full lockdown and start throwing every single one of them in prison. Whether that’s sustainable remains to be seen, but it’s 1000 times safer than it’s been in decades specifically because of that.
The most dangerous gang problem in Aurora (and everywhere else for that matter) is not migrant Venizualian gangs but the most ignorant, vile, lying, offensive, dictorial fascists Republicans who have cried wolf, henny pennied one crisis after another to cover they’re own criminal behaviour!
This Repubic candidate has the perfect last name- Fabriccatore, because the fascist repubs make up lies and crisises to disguise they’re dirty deeds.
Thank you for once again demonstrating that, to marxists, anyone who doesn’t go along with their political ideology is a fascist. Falls in line with the rest of their dumb oppressed/oppressor false duality.
I hope an illegal migrant kicks you out of your home and drinks all your beer and runs up a long distance phone bill. You little cry baby you’re Kamala Harris is nothing but a liar trying to cover her tracks, trying to line her pockets like all the others she switches her ethnicity depending on which part of the country she is rallying in, I hope trump wins I bet you’re just exactly where the government wants you to be your a brainwashed little puppet and the democrats pull your little strings puppet boy, your going to be the one crying if camela wins
Right after the election the main-stream media will suddenly discover the national issue of illegal alien gang violence and it will be “how could this happen here” hand wringing.
The progressives have delivered:
1. open borders
2. Sanctuary status
3. defund the police
4. turn felonies into misdemeanors.
5. don’t prosecute misdemeanors.
Polis has played a prominent role in all of these Progressive policy decisions.
Yes, your list is a sad recount of proven failures. Thankfully, a re-centering of policy has and is happening, but it still has a way to go.
They wern’t worried when it wss Crips vs Bloods, drug deals at every corner, killings and shootings on every block. So they made up gangs of Venisualians as the threat to scare the people and citizens to vote for the party of Hate your neighbor come November!
Have they scared you yet? I have been afraid of them for years.
LOL, there was a gang task force in Aurora in the 90s specifically because of that.
It wound down when most of those gangbangers ended up dead or in jail. How long have you lived in the city again?
The gangs never went away. The LA gangs are still here along with Mexican cartels, MS13, the KKK, biker gangs, etc., etc., etc. Jurinsky is just using TdA to get her dopamine fix from the media attention. In a few weeks, she’ll move on to something else. The gangs, the crime, the poverty, the homeless, the slums will still be here while she keeps busy looking for attention.
So you’re saying it’s Jurinsky’s fault that Aurora’s a haven for gangs, as you claim? LOL, stop. That doesn’t have anything to do with “dopamine hits,” but it is a good indication of what trash dump the north side of Aurora has been for decades, and will continue to be so because people like you marinate in such dysfunction.
We don’t see cops, or politicians in this community. We are not a political football. We are real people…you know, voters, tax payers.
This is an issue that goes deeper than a recent influx of Venezuelan migrants. This is a community that has been ignored for a very long time.
What I’m seeing is a lot of taxation with almost no representation. Government has got to deliver if they are going to take increasingly more of our money.
We, literally, fought a revolution over this basic principle.
So is this what the Hoover Institution’s Thomas Sowell meant when he said:
“It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance?”
Not really interested if potential law breakers are from Venezuela or Mars. Why would I be interested? I will simply blow your brains out if you attempt to bother me. Your problems are your own, including your inability to protect youself.
“Attempt to bother me”
…like if I have the wrong address and ring your doorbell at night?
…like if my dog gets loose and I run after her into your front yard?
…like if my teenager and his friends ask you if they can wash your car for a few bucks?
You, Old Resident, need to check yourself. Put the gun down.
Another cowrad heard from.
Another coward heard from.
The conservatives ran on fighting crime and ending homelessness. Now they say whole parts of the city have been taken over by gangs? Mission accomplished?
Right! And now the council is seriously considering decriminalizing municipal-level domestic violence offenses. How is that going to help make the city safer? Worst city council ever.
Good point. Sounds like what’s actually needed is to not listen to your side at all when it comes to fighting crime, and smash any “activists” and “community organizers” who want to keep their trashy neighborhoods trashy.
The Republicans ran on fighting crime, the Democrats ran on ending homelessness (by giving all homeless a free place to live), continuing to support illegal immigrants at the expense of legal citizens, and defunding the police. Democrats won the elections and you are seeing the results.
Same gang taking over buildings in dallas and likely more cities please make this mainstream it needs full attention
A big problem with this is that we don’t really know what’s going on. We’ve got a drama queen councilmember (who has a hisotry of crying wolf) and a political hack using people’s suffering to make political points. Are they trustworthy? The drama queen has a history of looking after special interests and she wasn’t concerned about Venzualean gangs until the “out-of-state slum lord” used TdA to distract from its shoddy management practices. Now she’s all over it and giving a loud voice to a well-financed group that is defending itself in court. Then there’s the video showing a number of people trying to break into a room. Who made the video? Are there any more like it, or is it a one-off? It’s election season and you can’t always trust what you think you see. Aurora PD hasn’t been sending clear messages and that’s a problem. Maybe they are a bit apprehensive because of the drama queen’s involvement. They don’t want to be sued for disagreeing with her. Even if the problem is as bad as the drama queen says it is, there is no need to panic. Reactionary hysteria is never the solution. Hopefully, calmer heads will prevail and real solutions implemented as necessary and appropriate. Aurora is a wonderful city and, to paraphrase a former president, there is nothing wrong with Aurora that can’t be fixed by what is right with Aurora.
“Even if the problem is as bad as the drama queen says it is, there is no need to panic.”
Once again, like clockwork:
1) “This isn’t happening.”
2) “Okay, it’s happening, but it’s not that big of a deal.” <—We are here.
3) "Yes, it's happening, and that's a good thing."
"Real solutions"–lol, what a glittering generality.
"there is nothing wrong with Aurora that can’t be fixed by what is right with Aurora."–More fatuous glittering nonsense.
What Polis meant to say was, “Could you folks hold off at least until after the election. This is making us look bad.”
Do you live here or under a rock? Asking for the people not living in sensationalized fear propaganda.
1) “This isn’t happening.” <—You are here.
2) “Okay, it’s happening, but it’s not that big of a deal.”
3) "Yes, it's happening, and that's a good thing."
Since you asked, I would offer this: I always enjoy seeing the evolution of commentary by liberal left-wing individuals when they are taken to task regarding the poor outcomes of their policies. They always follow the same pattern. Last week, the story was said to be made up by the owner of the apartments and Councilwoman Jurinsky. Then the surveillance videos came out. Some tried to say they were staged and others suggested that the videos were product of artificial intelligence. How funny. This week I guess it is sensationalized fear propaganda as you said. Next week it will be that it is only happening in a few dozen cities and American citizens are responsible for far more crime than illegals. And when all else fails, they will try to blame Trump. Kamala Harris has skipped the first few stages and already is trying to do this. Very funny. Next I suspect systemic racism and climate change will be somehow worked in as an explanation. The pattern is so predictable. It is as though everyone has gone through the same indoctrination center, also known as American Universities. And when all else fails, they will try to change the subject, as some commentators have tried to do by bringing up something that happened three and a half years ago – the riots at the capital on Jan. 6th. When pressed into a corner, the pattern is to always change the subject. Well, we are just beginning to see the unfortunate results of bringing tens of millions of poor, uneducated and unhoused individuals into this country. So, get ready, “you are going to have some splaining to do.”