By Cassandra Ballard | Aurora Sentinel
The Aurora Police released the body camera footage of the 17-year-old white male shot by an Aurora officer, stating the incident was not considered a mental health crisis, while studies suggest that the incident was a possible “suicide by cop.”
“This was not a call based upon somebody who was in a mental crisis,” Chief Todd Chamberlain said. “This was a call based on an individual who said that he was going to commit mass shootings and mass violence.”
The shooting happened Sept. 18 about 7:40 p.m. outside the Conoco gas station at 290. S. Havana St., after the juvenile suspect called the police to say he was going to fire at police and “shoot up” a gas station, according to Aurora police.
Chamberlain outlined the sequence of events during a briefing Friday, describing the rapid escalation from the initial emergency call to the suspect’s death.
At 7:33 p.m., the suspect called 911, reporting he had a loaded 9mm pistol in his pocket and planned to “shoot up the business” as well as anyone nearby. He also told dispatch that he wanted to fire on responding officers.
Three officers arrived at 7:43 p.m. with one armed with a rifle, another with a pistol and a third with a 40-millimeter less-lethal launcher, which fires “rubber” or “foam” projectiles.
The officers attempted to de-escalate the situation, Chamberlain said. When the officers approached the suspect, the juvenile kept his hands in his pockets, ignored commands and then he charged toward the officers, Chamberlain said.
Less-lethal rounds were initially fired when he ran toward the officers, but were ineffective as the suspect kept running at the officers after multiple projectiles were fired. The officer shooting with the 40-millimeter gun is seen running around the corner, as it appeared on police body camera video, and he appeared to take cover around the corner as the suspect keeps running toward him and the other officers. The officer drops the projectile tool and pulls out a different gun and shoots at the suspect twice, as seen in the body camera footage.
“Officers immediately began lifesaving measures and continued until medical personnel responded and arrived on scene,” Chamberlain said. “Unfortunately, the suspect was later pronounced dead at the hospital. It was later confirmed that the suspect did not have a firearm.”
Chamberlain said that although underlying mental health issues may have been a factor, the nature of the 911 call framed it as an imminent act of mass violence rather than a mental health crisis.
“This was a call based on an individual who said he was going to commit mass shootings and mass violence,” Chamberlain said. “That very well could have been the situation if we had waited.”
Aurora’s crisis response units and clinicians, Chamberlain said, are designed for non-violent situations such as when someone is despondent, suicidal or refusing to eat or sleep.
In contrast, research from the Police Executive Research Forum states that the incident was most likely what law enforcement experts often refer to as “Suicide By Cop,” a well-studied phenomenon when a person provokes officers into using lethal force.
The security camera footage showed the boy wearing socks but no shoes, sitting at the gas station and appearing to be waiting for the officers to arrive, as dispatchers mentioned to the officer in the body camera footage when the officers arrived at the scene.
In a “Suicide by Cop: Protocol and Training Guide created by PERF in 2019, “ researchers state that there are two kinds of “suicide by cop,” spontaneous and planned.” The training said that a suicidal person might point a firearm at or even run at officers. It also says that a way to recognize whether a person is suicidal includes the subject behaving aggressively toward the police for no apparent reason.
The training also said the defining characteristics of “suicide by cop” incidents are that the subject will threaten the life of the officer or another person, or they will attempt to make the officer believe they pose such a threat, to give the officer no choice but to use lethal force to stop the threat.
PERF researchers recommend not to “bark orders” because it “heightens anxiety” and makes compliance less likely. Instead, PERF recommends making small, pointed requests to build trust and reduce panic.
Chamberlain said Aurora officers receive training in suicide-by-cop recognition, crisis intervention, emotional intelligence and communication strategies.
He also said there were parallels between the recent Rajon Belt-Stubblefield officer-involved shooting and the juvenile suspect in the shooting on Sept. 18 as possible “suicide by cop” incidents. Chamberlain said that even with those parallels, in both cases the suspect refused to comply with the intervention, which “has to be in conjunction with the suspect willing to have that intervention component.”
Chamberlain said that regardless of what prompted the behavior of Belt-Stubblefield and the 17-year-old boy, police were compelled to shoot to protect themselves and the public.
“In that 15-second period, (officers) had to digest all that information, utilize these tools, utilize that communication to try to address that situation,” Chamberlain said. “This was not a crisis response call. This was a call based on violence or the perception that violence was going to occur.”
Chamberlain also cited “suicide by police” data from the FBI and Secret Service.
“There’s just disturbed intervention, which happens for about 56% of the cases,” he said. “There’s direct confrontation, which happens for about 28% and there’s also criminal intervention, which happens for about 16% on suicide by police officers.”
Disturbed intervention is when a person who was potentially suicidal took advantage of a police intervention and escalated the situation. This more than likely involves individuals with mental health issues or those experiencing a crisis.
Direct confrontation is when a subject directly and intentionally attacks police to provoke them into a lethal response.
Criminal intervention is when a subject might be involved in criminal activity and chooses death rather than surrender to law enforcement.
“All this individual would have had to do to stop was listen to the officers for one second and show his hands,” Chamberlain said. “If they had been able to have anything longer than 15 seconds, I guarantee you that dialogue would have changed.”
PERF recommends that officers say they are “here to help” and that pointing firearms gives a nonverbal message that dominates the interaction. They recommend maintaining distance, using cover, and keeping guns lowered unless a confirmed weapon is visible, which allows for calmer communication, according to 2019 data and research from a variety of sources cited.
“In the Los Angeles study of 419 Suicide by Cop incidents, 4% of the subjects had a firearm. Another 4% had a replica or fake weapon, and 5% had their hands in their pockets or otherwise appeared to possibly have a weapon. 16% of the subjects were armed with a knife,” the PERF study said.
The department’s policies and procedures address “suicide by cop,” and officers are trained to recognize and respond appropriately, Chamberlain said, but he added that this incident is unique and must be evaluated based on the facts known at the time, not in hindsight.
“None of these officers want to get involved in those situations, but that’s what they do,” Chamberlain said. “That’s what their role is. That’s what they’re here for. They’re here to serve, and they are using every tool, every opportunity, everything that they are trained to do, to do the best job that they possibly can in some incredibly, incredibly complex situations.”
