Aurora police officer fatally shoots man after traffic stop

An Aurora police officer shot and killed a man late Saturday night after a traffic stop.

Officers pulled over a vehicle near the intersection of East Smoky Hill Road and South Mobile Way at 11:58 p.m. Saturday for an undisclosed reason, according to a police department news release. A short time after making the stop, an officer at the scene fired his weapon at a man who had been in the car, hitting him.

Officers on the scene tried to help the man, the news release said, but he was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.

Police have not said what prompted the officer to fire shots.

Aurora’s major crimes/ homicide unit and crime scene investigations took over the investigation after the shooting. The officer involved, who has not been identified by Aurora police, has been placed on paid leave pending the outcome of that investigation.

The intersection where the shooting occurred is near Smoky Hill High School.

The incident marked the fifth officer-involved shooting in Colorado in six days.

On Feb. 5, El Paso County Deputy Micah Flick died in a gun battle while members of a car-theft task force tried to arrest Manuel Zetina, 19. Zetina also was killed, and two other deputies, a Colorado Springs police officer and a bystander were injured. Ballistic and forensic testing will confirm whether Zetina fired all the shots that wounded the law officers and bystander.

On Feb. 6, Denver officers shot and killed 29year-old Alex Duran after he charged at them with a knife after a standoff inside a home, police reported.

On Feb. 7, a Brighton police officer shot a suspect during a struggle after officers responded to a report of a man chasing a woman. The man was taken to the hospital for surgery. No information has been released on the severity of his injuries.

On Feb. 9, Colorado Springs police shot an unidentified person near Penrose Hospital on Friday night. Little information has been released about the shooting, including the suspect’s gender and injuries.

There have been 13 officer-involved shootings in Colorado since Jan. 1 that have killed seven suspects and two sheriff’s deputies.