Preliminary reviews indicate Aurora police officers were justified in shooting suspects in all five cases so far this year, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Thursday.
In some instances, he said, “there are examples of extraordinary heroism.”
“Our organization is handling these five events professionally and appropriately,” Oates added. “If there are lessons to be learned from these shootings, or persons to be held accountable, we will do so.”
Oates was speaking publicly about the shootings for the first time since a recent stretch in which officers shot and killed four suspects — three of them in less than a week.
In the year’s first case, an officer shot a suspected bank robber as he ran from a bank in the 10600 block of East Colfax Avenue. The man survived his injuries.
Four men were shot and killed between Feb. 10 and Sunday night. Two of those men held hostages before they were shot, police said. One approached an undercover officer with a gun.
Police are investigating whether the most recent man killed had hit an officer with his truck. The man’s friends say the driver was trying to flee the scene because he didn’t have a driver’s license and that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.
Oates called the recent string of shootings “an extraordinary sequence of events” unseen in at least 30 years. He also said it is not indicative of any kind of increase in overall violent crime.
When an Aurora officer fires a weapon, he or she is placed on administrative duty while the department’s major-crimes unit conducts a criminal investigation. The findings of the investigation are then presented to the district attorney for review.
The district attorney then has the option of filing criminal charges or issuing a “declination letter,” stating the officer’s actions were justified under the law and that the office will not file charges.
Once the DA’s review is complete, the Police Department begins an internal investigation to determine if the officer followed department policy. An officer may be cleared of criminal charges but face internal disciplinary action.
Oates said Aurora police have averaged three officer-involved shootings per year in his five years as chief. In each of those shootings, the district attorney has declined to file charges.
“Based on everything I know today, I expect that each of these (2011) cases will end up in the same place eventually,” he added.
All four of the most recent shootings are under investigation by the major-crimes unit, Oates said.
The department has presented its investigation of the January shooting to the DA, and that case is under review.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com
