Oleg Gidenko needed a new rear door for a family member’s Toyota Corolla. So near midnight on March 20, he drove two friends to a car storage lot on Laredo Street in Aurora.
The plan was to take a door from a Corolla that Gidenko, 22, had recently spotted there, one of his friends later told police. But in a matter of minutes, Gidenko was shot dead. His friend Yevgeniy “Eugene” Straystar, then 18, was seriously injured.
The shooting was the last in an unprecedented string in which Aurora police shot and killed four people, including three that occurred within one week.
Aurora investigators have sent the Gidenko case, as well as the three other fatal shootings, to their respective district attorney’s offices, Aurora police spokeswoman Sgt. Cassidee Carlson said Friday. The district attorneys will determine whether the officers’ actions were justified under the law.
According to the city attorney’s office, the city is exploring potential settlement opportunities with the Gidenko family.
Hundreds of pages of reports and photographs obtained by The Denver Post provide the first public look at what happened in the Gidenko case, which some activists have called an example of officers going too far.
According to the documents, Gidenko was driving a stolen Toyota truck when he and his friend Ruslan Giriyev, 19, picked up Straystar and drove to the fenced-in lot at 482 Laredo St.
Giriyev told police that the only gate to the lot was open when they arrived, drove inside and began removing the Corolla door, according to a police report.
Around 11:52 p.m. the owner of an adjacent automotive shop called police to report that three men he’d never seen before were in the lot. They appeared to be putting car parts in their truck, he said.
When police arrived a few minutes later the three men jumped into the truck.
At least two officers were outside their vehicles, standing between the truck and its only way out of the lot, the documents state.
Giriyev told police that Gidenko, who was in the truck’s driver’s seat, started the engine and “slammed on the gas” in an attempt to get away, according to the report.
Giriyev said he heard the officers tell them to stop, and saw one officer jump in front of the truck with a gun. He later told police that the officer was on the side of the truck, not in front of it, according to the report.
Another officer who arrived on the scene said he heard police order the men to stop and put their hands in the air.
The next thing he heard was gunfire.
The two officers fired more than a dozen shots, according to police documents. Photographs show bullet holes in the front, side and back of the truck, and marks from bullets in the steering wheel and the headrest of the driver’s seat.
One bullet hit Gidenko in the head, killing him almost instantly. Straystar also was shot in the head.
The truck, which appeared to be turning toward the lot’s exit, crashed into another car before coming to a stop.
One officer was treated for an injury to the back of his head and released from the hospital that day. It’s unclear from the police reports whether the officer was hit by the truck. The reports state only that he may have been hit, and that immediately after the incident he seemed dazed and couldn’t remember how he had been injured.
The three men were unarmed. But police found the door to the Corolla in the back of the truck, and tools that could be used to steal auto parts inside the vehicle.
Straystar was hospitalized for more than a month, and needed a cane to walk when he was released from University of Colorado Hospital. Giriyev was not seriously injured.
Both men now face charges of criminal trespass, possession of burglary tools and theft.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com
