DENVER (KDVR) — The family of a man, who was wanted by police and eventually shot and killed by authorities, took their message of anger to the Aurora City Council on Monday night, days after the district attorney announced no charges would be filed against the officer who shot the 37-year-old man.
Authorities said that on May 23, Kilyn Lewis, 37, was being surveilled as part of a felony attempted first-degree murder arrest warrant for an incident that happened on May 5. Since the critical incident, police have released body-worn camera footage of what happened.
Heather Morris, the Aurora Police Department’s interim chief at the time, said Lewis was behind his vehicle when officers approached him and commanded him to get on the ground. His hands were visible and empty at that time. However, he soon took a few steps and placed his right hand out of view.
When his hands came back into view, he was holding an object that investigators later learned was a cell phone.
An Aurora SWAT officer who saw the object in Lewis' hand fired a single shot. Lewis was given medical aid, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital two days after the incident.
On Friday, the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office announced no charges would be filed in the case. A grand jury declined to accept the case.
A spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department says the officer-in-question remains on restricted duty, in a non-public-facing role.
The DA wrote in the letter released Friday that officers involved in the incident said Lewis’ actions were “consistent with someone preparing to draw a weapon and otherwise fight the officers.”
The officer who shot Lewis said that he fired his weapon because he thought Lewis was holding a gun, “and based on the totality of the circumstances, including Mr. Lewis’ body movement, moving towards the officers when confronted, the crime Mr. Lewis was wanted for, and his violent history, that Lewis was preparing to shoot,” the DA wrote.
The District Attorney said that the officer’s use of deadly force was justified under the circumstances as he “reasonably believed there was an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, to himself and others.”
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