Editor’s note: Aurora Chief of Police Art Acevedo met with members of the community and Jor’Dell Richardson’s family at 8 a.m. Monday and representatives from Richardson’s family and his family’s legal counsel viewed the police video at 1 p.m. about an hour and a half after this editorial was published online.
Aurora’s interim police chief, Art Acevedo, should immediately invite the grieving family of Jor’Dell Da’Shawn Richardson into the police department to view the video recordings showing the events before, during and after an Aurora police officer shot and killed the 14-year-old.
Acevedo’s attempt to describe the incident in a public briefing has left everyone confused about what transpired, and while video evidence isn’t guaranteed to offer clarity in the shooting, often the video helps a family move forward from such a devastating loss.
Members of Richardson’s family visited police headquarters Monday to demand to see the video from both security cameras in the area and police officers’ body cameras, the latter of which is required by state law to be recorded during police responses and also required to be released. Police refused.
Acevedo said that Richardson was part of a group of teens who robbed a small store that sold vape nicotine cartridges near Dayton and 8th Avenue in Aurora. Acevedo said it was an armed robbery and that Richardson had a gun as police chased after him on foot into an alley near the store. Acevedo told The Denver Post that the video he has seen was unclear but that an officer says “drop the gun” before the shot that killed Richardson is fired and that he can see a gun hit the ground.
Richardson’s family said their young teen, who was set to begin high school next year, has never been in trouble with law enforcement before and that the events police described do not reflect the teen they knew and loved.
Colorado is suffering from an increase in teen gun violence and crime, some of it is gang-related. An officer who was part of a gang prevention unit in Aurora was the first to notice the teens acting suspiciously near the store that was eventually robbed. It’s unfortunate that that officer was not able to prevent the crime and de-escalate the situation before someone was killed.
Colorado, especially Aurora, has also suffered from police misconduct – including excessive use of force cases and unjustified shootings – that have left the public leery of official police stories that are released immediately following these cases.
Colorado law allows time for a family to review video of their loved one’s death before the video is released to the public, and if any other minors were caught in the body camera footage, police may be required to blur out their faces if the teens aren’t tried as adults before release.
However, none of that should take more than a few days. Acevedo shouldn’t make Richardson’s family wait any longer to get the answers they deserve in their son’s death.
The video will eventually be released publicly. State law requires it, so police should not delay the inevitable. It encourages distrust from the public for a police department that already has a fractured relationship with its constituents.
Acevedo’s message after the shooting was aimed at discouraging youth crime. We have been calling for years for Denver and Aurora to focus resources on keeping kids out of gangs, out of trouble and alive. But Acevedo would have been wise to delay his indignant lecture until a review of his officer’s conduct has been completed.
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