AURORA | Aurora police have recommended levying attempted murder and hate crime charges against a 30-year-old man suspected of stabbing another man before he asked Aurora police to shoot and deploy a stun gun on him as he yelled “Black lives matter” Tuesday evening.
Police have accused Steve Sinclair of stabbing 29-year-old Michael Conner in the torso at approximately 6 p.m. Aug. 25 outside of the Greensview Apartments in the city’s Centretech neighborhood, according to court documents.
Witnesses told Aurora police that Sinclair used at least one knife to stab Conner in the side as Conner ran away from him near 16305 E. Alameda Place. Conner attempted to defend himself with a wooden stick during the melee, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Sentinel. One woman told authorities that she heard Sinclair tell Conner: “I’m going to kill you and your dog.”
Sinclair, who was covered in blood, approached the first police officer to arrive to the scene, Alexan Diz, repeatedly saying “Black lives matter,” Diz wrote in the affidavit. Diz wrote that Sinclair refused to heed commands to sit on a nearby curb, and immediately claimed he had just stabbed someone, saying “I stabbed him, I’m a psychopath,” according to the arrest document.
Conner, who is white, later told police that Sinclair, who is Black, also shouted “Black lives matter” at him prior to stabbing him. It’s unclear exactly what precipitated the altercation between the two men.
“There was some sort of fight and the suspect stabbed the victim,” Officer Matt Longshore, spokesman for the Aurora Police Department, said Wednesday.
Diz eventually threatened to deploy a Taser on Sinclair, at which point Sinclair “insisted that (officers) should shoot him, and then advised (officers) to tase him,” the record reads.
Diz wrote that Sinclair was arrested “without incident.” Investigators found two knives at the scene, Longshore confirmed.
Conner was later treated for serious injuries at a local hospital, including a collapsed lung. Longshore confirmed that Conner survived the stabbing and remains alive as of Wednesday.
Police have recommended charging Sinclair with one count of attempted first-degree murder and one bias-motivated crime charge. Colorado Bureau of Investigation records describe the latter charge as “felony ethnic intimidation.”
Sinclair had never been arrested in Colorado prior to Tuesday, state records show.
Sinclair is currently being held at the Arapahoe County jail without bond, according to county records. He’s scheduled to make his first court appearance at 9 a.m. on Aug. 27.