The man who fatally shot a 12-year-old boy in an exchange of gunfire with occupants of the man’s stolen vehicle in Denver earlier this month will not be charged.
The Feb. 5 incident happened after the man used an app to track his stolen vehicle from the 8300 block of East Northfield Boulevard to the area of West 12th Avenue and Decatur Street, the Denver Police Department stated in a news release.
The man approached the car and got into an exchange of gunfire with people inside the vehicle, then a juvenile male, later identified as Elias Armstrong, 12, drove the vehicle to the 2900 block of West 10th Avenue, where police found him with a gunshot wound. Elias was taken to a hospital and later died.
The man who shot Elias, who has not been identified, was not arrested, police said, and a spokesperson for the Denver District Attorney’s Office said in an emailed statement the office will not file charges as prosecutors do not believe they could prove the man’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
“We have an ethical obligation to only file a case if we believe we can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Carolyn Tyler, with the Denver District Attorney’s Office, said.
