AURORA | Four people have been arrested in connection to a hotel swimming pool shooting in Aurora Wednesday night that left one teenage boy dead and four other people injured, including, apparently a shooting suspect.
Five people were shot at about 7 p.m. at the swimming pool inside at the Quality Inn Hotel and Suites 3300 Ouray St., police said.
“Upon officers’ arrival, they located a 16-year-old male juvenile suffering from an apparent gunshot wound,” Aurora Police Officer Francisco Saucedo said in a statement. “Tragically, the juvenile was pronounced deceased on the scene.”
Police also “located” somewhere at the hotel two women suffering gunshot wounds. One of woman is 19, the other 20.
“Both females were transported to a local hospital in serious condition,” Saucedo said. “The suspects left the scene prior to officers’ arrival.”
Soon after police were told about the hotel shooting, dispatchers received a call about another person having been shot near Chambers Road and East Smith Road.
“Officers from the Aurora Police Gang Intervention Unit contacted three juvenile males and one 18-year-old male,” Saucedo said. “They discovered that the adult male was suffering from a gunshot wound. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment.”
Police later identified the man as Rafael Bergeron Martinez, 18, of Westminster.
“Officers were quickly able to determine that all the subjects had been involved in the shooting and took them into custody,” police said.
The three boys and Martinez have all been arrested in connection with the shooting and murder at the hotel, police said.
The boys’ identities were not released because of their ages.
“Last night, our community was, once again, shaken by the news of gun violence involving young people,” said Brian Mason, 17th Judicial District Attorney. “This is yet another horrific case of a teen losing their life because too many young people have easy and unsupervised access to firearms.”
“Please secure your guns properly so you can ensure that there is one less gun out on the street,” Mason said.
The Adams County coroner office will release the name of the slain boy at a future date, police said, which is standard police protocol.
Earlier Wednesday night, police said all three hospitalized shooting victims were listed in serious condition, including, apparently, a suspect.
This is Aurora’s seventh homicide of 2022.
“I want to highlight the exceptional teamwork that these arrests represent,” Aurora Police Chief Venessa Wilson said in a statement. “Our officers and detectives from patrol, the Gang Unit and the Major Crimes Homicide Unit worked quickly to apprehend these violent criminals.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and still be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000, police said.
When will you citizens of Aurora wake up to the fact that we have a huge problem in Aurora? Someone killed almost weekly in 2022, 5 to 10 wounded by gunfire weekly in Aurora.
If you feel physically safe, in Aurora, you are kidding yourself. I don’t want to argue about it anymore. What we have been doing is not working. It is the Cities duty to provide we citizens actual safety not just the feeling or hope of safety. The APD is not providing us a safe environment no matter what political stance you may have. MASA. Make Aurora Safe Again!
(wondering how someone can click on a negative opinion on this?) I’m with you Dick. I don’t think the Council has a clue about what to do though. They are afraid to suggest anything at all. More police means higher taxes. More Courts mean higher taxes. More convictions mean, you got it higher taxes. People want all that and what? Lower taxes. So what you going to do? The US Constitution says you can’t bother people to get the guns out of the hands of the criminals by making them difficult to obtain. So what’s next?
All good questions, Doug.
(PS. Fire the Police Chief. /s/ Whatever.)
Everyone is well aware. Do you have suggestions?
Who is the crazy person that shoots at 4 people? Were drugs or criminal activity involved? Is this shooting related to the 50 other shootings in Aurora this year? What was a 16 year old was doing at a hotel on a school night? I hope answers are forthcoming.
We the public may never know. I think we should know. I think each one of these incidents should be followed up on by the council and the APD through their PID and Spoke people and let the citizens know what happened and what the disposition of the case is.
Kids are out of control. They get their guns from adults who have guns. But everyone is breaking the law, ad no one seems to care. The solutions begin at home and in the schools, but those ships have sailed, I’m afraid.
Do the math: more guns = more shootings. Had enough?
More guns possessed by criminals.
Us legal gun owners are nothe problem.
Wife and I nown guns because of criminals.
No one ever said you were the problem, so why get defensive? No one can steal a gun from me, because I don’t have one and never will, but you do you. I trust you keep your guns locked up as required by state law so no one can steal them.
I will repeat this theme once again. While all approaches should be pursued, it makes no sense to have a police department paralyzed by the vague guidance created by the police reform bill. That bill was largely responsible for officers leaving and most officers no longer making stops. If you want to get guns off of the street and make it risky for criminals to carry, then officers must be able to do police work aggressively within the framework of the law. the. Liberals do not want people stopped for”minor” offenses and want them released immediately for even serious crimes. Further, they do not want them touched or eventually imprisoned. Like Putin, people should understand that there is a portion of the population that cares little about your life or safety. Ignoring the problem, like we are doing at the border does not help. Ignoring Putin’s aggressions only made him more confident. The same principle exists in the juvenile justice system, As an officer, I saw it repeated many times. The juvenile justice system kept giving the kids chances until they did not fear the justice system at all. Sorry, but I want the kid who is arrested to be crying and affected emotionally. Back to the police reform bill. Notice that the politician chiefs are not standing up at all about the effects of the bill. It doesn’t affect them.Their officers are now at risk. But, hey, if officers don’t stop anyone, the the chief won’t have to explain if something bad happens when the suspect starts to fight. Chiefs can just wash their hands of the officer and lie about the training the officer received. Anyway, there are many approaches that we can take. Eliminating the criminals’ fear of the police should not be one. When you bring up all of the problems with the bill, politicians and chiefs just act like you did not say anything. They cannot explain what their bill actually says about use of force. The knee jerk reaction to George Floyd’s death did nothing but harm to the police effort to protect the public. You can always tell when they don’t have a good argument. They simply ignore you or label you. I will say that the requirement in the bill for body cameras and more transparency is good. The problem then comes up that the Chief, the media, and the public are not qualified to judge most use of force. Poorly trained officers become poorly trained Chiefs. Look at crowd control. Who do you think is responsible for the poor tactics and supervision? George Floyd was an obvious example of force the public could see was wrong. Recent examples in Colorado of officers being prosecuted for simply touching a suspect’s neck should give you an idea why officers don’t want to stop anyone. The suspect’s actions decide the amount of force that will be required. Now, the suspect knows he can resist and sue. Big money out there when the public is geared to believe that everything is racist and the police are all brutal.
“I will repeat this theme once again.” Yes you will, ad nauseum, because you are an angry demagogue. But you are the expert. /s/
https://kdvr.com/news/local/aurora-pd-responds-to-hotel-shooting-3-victims/
The police PIO is always quick to make the statement “They do not believe the public is at risk and this was an isolated incident.” The link above from 31 news after watching their report and data in it, is in conflict with the standard canned statement from the cops.
We’ve been told gangs were not a big problem and if hiring a few more social workers will work wonders. This city is a lot like what other big cities turn into with the accepting and tolerating a look the other way political leadership. Unlike, APD’s public not at risk, sweet dreams talk, gangs to Aurora, operate at ease, and are safe in a sanctuary city.
We have listened to and were told by city officials “we are not a sanctuary city” before. Anything back then sound familiar? Whats different about this?
Hopefully, the new city council will continue the course to turn the corner to make Aurora safe again. Despite all the objection from a few on council that stand in the way, and totally committed to make excuses for societies misfits unwilling, to follow the law.
Police Chief Venessa Wilson said in a statement. “Our officers and detectives from patrol, the Gang Unit and the Major Crimes Homicide Unit worked quickly to apprehend these violent criminals.”
Thank you to the officers and detectives!
Even without excuses, laws are still being broken, and often by kids. I still say this is a problem that should be addressed at home and in the schools.