Aurora – With a bullet in her chest and her husband dying next to her, Benita Coleman- Davis gasps on her cellphone to a 911 operator: “We’re dying. Come now.”
Seconds before, Denver restaurateur Glenn Eichstedt shot the couple during a fight over a car-door scratch in a strip-mall parking lot at South Chambers Road and East Mississippi Avenue. Coleman-Davis was critically injured, her husband, Aaron Davis, was killed, and Eichstedt was never arrested.
Most of the Nov. 13 fight and its deadly aftermath was recorded when Coleman-Davis called 911. The recordings were released by the city of Aurora following a grand jury’s conclusion that Eichstedt shouldn’t be indicted because he acted in self-defense when he fired his gun to fend off Davis, who reportedly was beating him with a steel rod.
The case generated community debate, as many black residents said Eichstedt wasn’t arrested because he is white and the couple were black. A coalition of city leaders vowed to work with police to foster better relations with the black community, and a movement was started to change grand-jury rules to allow the ethnic and gender makeup of the jurors to be revealed.
There were witness accounts, police reports and forensic evidence. But, perhaps, the best information of what happened that night is from the 911 recordings. And even then, it still isn’t clear why an incident that started with a car ding escalated into a deadly shooting.
The tapes begin with a brief call from Coleman-Davis, who wanted police to respond to the confrontation.
“Go ahead, call them,” someone is heard saying in the background. The 911 operator tries to get information about the location as the fight escalates.
Someone yells, “Take the hit.” And Coleman-Davis shouts, “No, Aaron,” before the phone goes dead. The operator immediately calls back on Coleman-Davis’ phone.
After four rings, she answers with labored breathing, “We’ve both been shot.”
The operator tries to keep her talking, telling her to put pressure on her chest wound and asking why she was shot.
“I’m going to go out. I’m getting ready to go out,” she says.
“No, Benita. Stay with me, OK?” the operator says.
Coleman-Davis groans and pleads with the operator to send help. She reads off Eich stedt’s license-plate number and says the incident began when her “husband and this man started arguing in the parking lot.”
“The first time you hear (the recordings), it’s just so profoundly sad,” said Assistant District Attorney Leslie Han sen of the 18th Judicial District. “You can hear the desperation in (Coleman-Davis’) voice and the situation spinning out of control. … It’s very moving, heartbreaking and sad.”
Coleman-Davis has declined numerous requests to discuss the case. Eichstedt couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Witnesses who also called 911 give different perspectives of the altercation. Most are amazed that Eichstedt waits for the police after the shooting.
Police reports say Eichstedt was hit several times with the rod and needed dozens of stitches to close a head wound. In the grand-jury testimony, witnesses differed on who threw the first punch, but all of them said Davis began hitting Eichstedt with the bar before any shots were fired.
“It’s frightening to those of us in the business that people seem to be on such a short fuse,” said Michael Knight, investigator and spokesman for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
“Who doesn’t go to Blockbuster? Who hasn’t gone to a parking lot and, not thinking, banged into the guy next door? It’s one of those things that can literally happen to anyone.”
Eda Ordonez was a witness that night and testified before the grand jury. She said she thinks about the incident often and avoids parking near the scene whenever she returns to the strip mall.
“I am not going to say that I agree with what (Eichstedt) did,” she said. “Probably, he had a right to defend himself. Probably he was scared. I’m sorry for Mrs. Davis and his family. I don’t think it was fair for her to get shot. That’s what I’m against. She didn’t do anything that would harm him.”
In another exchange on the 911 tapes, Coleman-Davis talks to the police officer who was first to arrive at the scene.
“Where’s the bad guy at?” he asks.
Coleman-Davis says, “The white guy.”
In the end, investigators, the district attorney and a grand jury determined there was no bad guy, just a tragedy on a mid-November day in a suburban parking lot.
