DENVER | Aurora’s new police chief said Tuesday that the shooting of an unarmed black man by Aurora police last week was a “tragedy” and said he isn’t opposed to bringing in outside investigators to review it.
Area activists have since called for two protests of the shooting. One has been called by the area organization CopWatch and is slated for 5 p.m. Wednesday at the corner of East Alameda Avenue and Sable Boulevard, adjacent to the Town Center at Aurora mall. A Facebook site for that protest has been created HERE.
“Bring signs, banners, anger and hope,” organizer Shareef Aleem wrote on the Facebook event invite.
A second rally is slated for 5 p.m. Thursday at city hall. Protesters have opened a Facebook account for that event HERE.
Aurora police Chief Nick Metz, who took the helm just last week, said the department waited three days to discuss the Friday afternoon shooting of Naeschylus Vinzant, 37, because they wanted an “incredibly thorough” investigation. He also said they were slowed down because the officer who shot Vinzant had not yet made a statement to detectives.
“We want to do better and we want to be held accountable,” Metz said.
Metz made the comments during a community forum at The Potter’s House of Denver church about the relationship between local police and minorities. Police chiefs from Denver and Boulder, as well as sheriffs from Denver and Arapahoe County also participated.
The initial lineup for the event — which was sent out Friday just a short time before Vinzant was shot — did not include Aurora police. But by Tuesday, with questions about why the officer shot Vinzant still swirling, both Metz and Deputy Chief Terry Jones were on the schedule.
Aurora police still haven’t released details about why the officer shot Vinzant, but Metz said once the department has more accurate information, they will release it.
Pastor Chris Hill, who organized the event, said he wanted it to be a chance for regular people — not activists and politicians who often already have law enforcement’s ear — to have a chance to speak to police officials about the strained relationship between law enforcement and much of the community.
“This thin blue line has become a big blue wall,” he said.
Hill said he wanted to organize the event about a month ago, well before Vinzant was shot.
“We keep having crises in our community,” he said.
He stressed that while police need a “culture shift” that lets them better understand the black community, the community also needs to see police as people.
Hill, whose father was a police officer wounded on duty, said young people also need to obey police officers, even if they feel like the officers are in the wrong.
“I didn’t say ‘agree,’ you can complain tomorrow, but you need to comply in that moment,” he said.
Many of the questions from the roughly 700 people who filled a ballroom at the church on the Denver/Aurora border were about traffic stops and other stops by police that members of the crowd felt were unfair and based solely on the color of their skin.
The police chiefs told the crowd that if they are stopped, they should, by law, get one of two things: a ticket or the officer’s business card.
Denver Police Chief Robert White pleaded with the community to quickly contact police officials if they feel like they are stopped unjustly.
Metz said one of the issues facing Aurora police is a dearth of officers who grew up in Aurora and wanted to serve their hometown. When he met officers last week, Metz said he met many who were from out of state, but few from Aurora.
“They’re not homegrown,” he said.
He and the other chiefs pleaded with the community to encourage more young people to seek a career in law enforcement.
The thugs, gang bangers, local drug dealers, drug users, dropouts, thieves, and all the up to no-goods do not attend these events. They exist in every race (African American, Latino, White, and others), they exist in every neighborhood and mostly in every income level these days. There is NO one race or age group anymore or one particular area; they are all over.
This is a good step towards trying to bring awareness. The pastor is correct in his statement of “obeying” not “agreeing”. People need to start obeying and respecting laws for the better of our city. Police officers need to have the proper training of the customer service type of mentality, in this case citizen service (protect and serve). We must all put our part to succeed as a whole.
Quick note: In this particular situation of the unarmed man being shot; the prior history of accusations and record should speak for itself; he was to be considered a dangerous individual. PERIOD! With that said; let’s get the facts and how it played out before running to fault police.
Well said, and Nick Metz is handling this seemingly well too. Promising to deliver a thorough investigation into the death of a unarmed person. He also treated the perp like a human being by recognizing, this is going to be a tragedy to some people. Though people do stupid things, and reap the consequences it’s still good to see them treated as people. Good job APD.
Aurora should not have homegrown officers since Aurora has grown tremendously since 1963 when wife and I bought our house in Aurora. She was born in Denver, and Ohio for me. Returning from Labrador (military) I returned to Lowry to teach Avionics. In 1964, one of Aurora police officers stopped me on 6th Avenue (RR track still there) and gave me a $5.00 ticket for speeding on a street that did not even connect to 6th Ave. I paid the fine, because he could win that case in that day, and if I complained, Air Force would have questioned my judgment as instructor. So thank god, we don’t have any of those still on the force. Majority of Aurora citizens now arrived here in past few years, which creates enough problems. That officer was biased against all military in1964, though Denver and Aurora were both friendly places to be.
I stand with the police officers, would you rather have had them ‘sit down with the perp and have a beer’? Nah, there are BAD people out there, the sooner that the numbskulls who ‘march’ on their behalf understand that, the better.
We are not at war with the criminals, if the suspect was Un-armed and considered armed and dangerous removing his ankle monitor then this is good he didn’t have a gun because the guy is already considered armed and dangerous, the officers shot Unarmed guy and Thank God, he didn’t have a gun because he would have fired back possibly killing officer’s.
This grown man had a history of being armed and dangerous.
The officer did what they had to do, I have no pity on the deceased thug…..
Before we have knee-jerk protests give law enforcement (and yes it should be an independent department) a chance to conduct a complete investigation.
Once again the Aurora Sentinel is stirring the pot and throwing their extremist agenda into the discussion. Links to protest pages before the facts are in is a new low.
Look at Deputy Chief Jones, this job has aged him before his time. It is a bad time to be a Police Officer in this country.