The four Aurora police officers who fired their guns will not face charges in the encounter, prosecutors announced Tuesday, finding they were acting in self defense.
Stephen Ray “Lucifer” Schuster, 35, who had a long criminal record dating back to 2005 in Colorado and had served prison time, died of multiple gunshot wounds on the 7700 block of South Quemoy Way.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Gallo said in a letter announcing his decision that the officers — Sgt. Tyler Reissland, Peter Benda, Jose Ortiz and Cody Jones — were justified in their use of force.
The ordeal began late on the night of May 10 when Schuster used a gun to carjack a white Jeep Cherokee from a man he had met up with to buy cellphones that were being advertised on Craigslist.
The victim called 911 to report the robbery, alerting Aurora police officers to be on the lookout for Schuster and his two female companions. Schuster was driving the Jeep with one of the females while the other was behind the wheel of a red sedan, according to investigators.
Just before midnight, officers spotted the vehicles and began following them. The sedan pulled over and its driver was taken into custody without incident, but Schuster keep driving until he reached a residential area where he made a U-turn and turned the Jeep to face the police vehicles that had been following him.
Schuster then drove at one of the officer’s vehicles, striking its the driver’s-side door. According to the letter, Schuster at that point said something to the effect that he was “not going to go back to prison”
Schuster then led police on a roughly 15-minute chase across Aurora that reached estimated speeds of 60 to 80 mph. Eventually, the letter says, Schuster wound up on a dead-end street and surrounded by officers, where he told his female companion, “I ain’t (expletive) going back to prison. I’ll shoot every one of these mother(expletive)!”
Authorities say Schuster was holding a black, .40-caliber Smith and Wesson pistol and appeared to be maneuvering to shoot at officers as he raised the weapon.
Four officers then unleashed a hail of 25 bullets at Schuster, killing him. One officer — Sgt. Reissland — was found to have fired 17 times, according to the letter.
Police then advanced toward the Jeep, firing a Taser at Schuster because he was still holding the gun and “non-compliant with demands.”
“Crime-scene investigation indicated that Schuster likely did not fire any rounds from his weapon,” the letter said.
The gun Schuster was holding had been . The female in the Jeep was not wounded.
“I find that Sgt. Reissland, Officer Benda, Officer Ortiz and Officer Jones each reasonably believed that his own life was in danger,” Gallo wrote, “and further that each reasonably believed that the lives of those nearby were in danger. During the last hour of his life, Schuster placed numerous officers and civilians at imminent risk of great bodily injury and death.”
The shooting led Aurora police Chief Nick Metz to say in the following days that his officers were facing increased physical aggression.
“If you point a gun at one of my officers, expect there will be an aggressive and a very overwhelming response,” Metz said at a news conference, “because my expectation is that my officers go home at the end of shift.”
Another Aurora police official, Sgt. Matthew Fyles, said “this suspect had every opportunity to stop.”
