AURORA | An Aurora SWAT team officer who fired into a north Aurora apartment building during a standoff thinking a police-deployed flash-bang device was a shooter is not guilty of any wrongdoing, 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason ruled in a decision letter released Tuesday.
During the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 26, Aurora Police Department officers were called to a report of a shooting, but the suspect had fled the home and no arrest was made, according to the letter. Later that day, the mother of the suspect called the police to report that it was her adult son who had fired shots at a neighbor’s house.
The woman asked APD to remove her son from her home, an apartment in the 2200 block of Billings Street. According to the letter, she warned the police that he was armed and threatening to kill members of the household and was “scared, schizophrenic” and on drugs.
Police responded to the residence, where two members of the household remained barricaded in the basement after the others had fled.
“The mother reported that her son refused to come out of the house and if police responded he would engage in a ‘blaze of glory,’” the letter said. Officers were unable to make contact with the man and summoned the APD SWAT team, which was also unable to make contact.
The members of the household inside told police they thought the man was trying to force his way into the basement, the letter said, at which point the SWAT team decided to enter the house. As police entered the house they detonated a flash-bang device intended to distract the suspect.
“As the SWAT officers entered the home, two of them saw what they perceived as muzzle flashes,” the letter said. “Apparently one of the officers, believing the flash to be someone shooting from the inside, fired his weapon toward the direction of the flash.”
The gunshots caused property damage but did not strike anybody, the letter said. Officers later said they thought the flashes were the suspect firing at them, which investigators could not find any evidence for.
“Aside from the deployment of flash-bang devices, no conclusions could be reached as to what the two SWAT officers perceived as muzzle flashes,” the letter said.
The officers were not named by the district attorney’s office.
As is standard any time weapons are fired, the 17th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team investigated the incident and presented the findings to the DA’s office. Mason ruled that the officer was not guilty of any criminal conduct in firing his weapon.
APD previously had an agreement with the Denver Police Department to investigate each other’s use of force incidents but joined the 17th and 18th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Teams last April. The switch was part of an ongoing effort from Chief Vanessa Wilson to increase transparency in the department.
Criminal charges against the man, who was not named in the letter, are pending in Adams County District Court.
According to previous reporting from The Sentinel, the suspect was a 21-year-old man who was taken into custody after the SWAT team entered the home. He was admitted to a local hospital for treatment because he was determined to be experiencing a mental health crisis, and was charged after being released.
Sounds like poor coordination for a SWAT team.