Aurora police have booked a man on suspicion of first-degree murder after a shooting and car crash Tuesday night.
Ashton Dane Curtis Steel, 27, was questioned by police after he drove past the area where a man was found dead in a car. Steel is being held without bail in the Arapahoe County Detention Center.
Witnesses told police that the car Steel was riding in had been involved in a shooting just before the car crash.
Police were called by a number of residents near the intersection of East Jewell Avenue and South Sable Boulevard around 8:50 p.m. Tuesday. When officers arrived, they found a red Chevrolet Tahoe that had crashed onto the lawn of a condominium complex, with a dead man inside.
The victim’s identity has not been released, but police described him as a 27-year-old black male. They speculated that the victim was shot after a drug deal went bad.
Police said the man suffered gunshot wounds as well as trauma injuries from the crash. The Arapahoe County coroner will have to determine the cause of death, according to police.
Residents said they heard a number of what sounded like gunshots before the Tahoe came to a stop.
During the interviews, a car cruised by that residents said was the one involved in the gunfire. Police stopped the car and questioned the occupants, which led to Steel’s arrest.
