Nationally prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the family of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield, a 37-year-old Black man fatally shot by an Aurora police officer, said Friday that body-worn camera video shows the officer shot him three times.
The final shot was to the head, Crump said.
Crump and family members talked to the media at the New Nation Church in Aurora after having watched the video earlier in the week. and surveillance videos to the public Friday afternoon.
Belt-Stubblefield was shot after an officer tried to pull him over near East Sixth Avenue and Sable Boulevard around 7:30 p.m., just east of Interstate 225.
Aurora police said Belt-Stubblefield was speeding. He hit two cars trying to outrun a police car and then, instead of staying in his car as the officer ordered, started walking toward the officer. Video from the body-worn camera shows Belt-Stubblefield walking toward the officer, who punched him when he turned around.
Belt-Stubblefield then kept walking toward the officer, saying “You ready for this”? The officer shot twice, apparently striking Belt-Stubblefield in the upper torso.
After the third shot, Belt-Stubblefield fell to his knees and then back. He died at the scene.
“We’ve seen the video for ourselves,” Crump said, “and we know, just like other videos we’ve seen, once you see it, you know in your soul that it was unjustified.”
During the news conference, Crump stood next to the slain man’s wife, Tandra Blankson, and his 18-year-old son, Zion Murphy. His son was in a car behind his father’s car when the confrontation occurred and can be heard on the video yelling, “He just shot my dad. He had no gun.”
Crump is working with Colorado attorneys to monitor the case.
“We’re here to say we’re not going to let you sweep this under the rug,” Crump said of the police. “We not going to let you act as if Brother Rajon’s life didn’t matter.”
The attorney led the audience in the chant, “We’re going to raise the justice baton for Brother Rajon.”
When asked whether there are plans to sue the police department, Crump and other attorneys said they will let the investigation by the 18th Judicial District’s critical incident team proceed to see what happens.
“We will make sure that all the legal needs are taken care of, but right now our main focus is that the 18th judicial focuses on bringing charges for this crime,” Denver attorney Milo Schwab said.
Belt-Stubblefield’s death is the latest in a series of incidents that have put the Aurora Police Department’s actions under scrutiny. The department entered into a consent decree with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in 2021 following national attention on the death of Elijah McClain after a violent arrest in 2019.
The department has been sued for other incidents involving excessive force, wrongful death and civil rights violations.
Aurora police officials didn’t comment Friday on the video or the press conference. Police Chief Todd Chamberlain previously said that the officer, whose name hasn’t been released, punched Belt-Stubblefield to try to de-escalate the situation, but the man raised his fist and kept walking toward the officer.
Chamberlain said, “It was the suspectap actions that escalated into this.”
The officer has had personnel complaints filed against him. Chamberlain said those complaints were “nothing major.”
Pastor Aurthur Porter said Belt-Stubblefield was “a beloved member” of the New Nation Church and the community.
“This incident in our city has caused grief, pain, anger and confusion. Our commitment is to have justice,” Porter said.
include representing the families of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people whose deaths by law enforcement officials and vigilantes sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
