Aurora – A man wanted on a drug warrant was shot and killed by Aurora police Sunday night in the 800 block of Oswego Street.
Police have not identified the dead man or the two officers involved in the shooting.
Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel said five officers approached the man’s SUV, and one officer broke out the driver’s window with a hammer. With the window shattered, an officer tried to use a stun gun on the fugitive, but it had no effect.
“They attempted to use less-lethal force,” Friel said. But the man “pulled a gun out and pointed it at the officers.”
Aurora officer have used the broken window and stun-gun tactic about 40 times over the past couple of years and have never had to fire a shot before, Friel said.
Two of five uniformed officers opened fire on the man, who died at the scene.
His name wasn’t released.
Investigators recovered a Glock handgun and several loaded magazines from the late-model Ford Explorer the fugitive was in when the shooting took place at about 10 p.m.
A local bailbondsman called Aurora police to tell them the fugitive would on Oswego Sunday night.
The dead man, who is in his 30s, was wanted on charges out of Adams and Jefferson counties, Friel said.
The two officers have been suspended with pay pending an investigation of the shooting by the police department’s Major Crime Unit. The case will be turned over to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators lit up the area with floodlights overnight and dozens of yellow evidence markers dotted the street around the Explorer and on the front lawn of an Oswego Street home. The front windshield of the Ford SUV was shattered.
The man’s body was taken from the scene at about 10:30 a.m. Monday.
Melissa Pukall was raised in a house across the street from the shooting scene. On Monday she was visiting with her grandmother, Ida Pukall, who still lives there.
“It makes me really, really uneasy,” Melissa said of the shooting.
Both women said the neighborhood has been deteriorating in recent years because of drug traffic.
“You don’t dare walk at night now,” Ida Pukall said.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
