AURORA — A plainclothes Aurora police officer fatally shot a man Saturday night in a parking lot off East Colfax Avenue.
Detective Robert Friel, police spokesman, said the officer was meeting with an extortion suspect in the 12100 block of East Colfax Avenue, near Peoria Street, when the incident occurred about 7:40 p.m.
Friel said there was a physical confrontation between the two, and the officer fired multiple times.
The suspect was taken to a local hospital, where he was declared dead.
Other Aurora police were in the area as part of the extortion operation, but only the plainclothes patrolman fired.
The parking lot is near a Family Dollar Store and an O’Reilly Auto Parts. After 10 p.m., about a dozen people, possibly family members, huddled near the stores, crying aloud.
Witness Fernando Soltero said he was in the auto parts store when he heard three pops, which he thought was an auto backfire.
He went outside and saw a man slumped in the driver’s seat of a Jeep Cherokee, bleeding on his left side.
Friel said a knife was found in the Jeep.
Aldo Svaldi, The Denver Post
