Six teens wounded in drive-by shooting in Aurora
Attack in park across street from Aurora Central; city dealing with ‘violence crisis’
The Denver Post
Six teenagers were wounded in a midday driveby shooting Monday at a park across the street from an Aurora high school that sent students sprinting for safety — and police searching for suspects.
All six victims, who range in age from 14 to 18, are students at Aurora Central High School and were hospitalized, Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson said at an afternoon news conference.
None of their wounds were believed to be lifethreatening, but one of the teens was undergoing emergency surgery, she said.
Investigators believe multiple suspects opened fire around 12:45 p.m. Monday in and near Nome Park, at 12th Avenue and Nome Street, and that they fired from a car and possibly from on foot as well, she said. No suspects have been detained. They fired multiple guns and police have collected ammunition of different calibers, Wilson said.
“I need us all to be outraged about what happened here today,” Wilson said, urging people who might know something about the shooting to contact police.
The shooting of six students comes as Aurora deals with an ongoing youth violence problem and communities across the Denver area experience rising violence. Seven teens have been shot — and three killed — in Aurora in the past three weeks. Those shootings brought the total number of teens killed in Aurora homicides this year to seven.
“When I got the call my heart dropped,” Wilson said of Monday’s shooting. “I think enough is enough. We need to come together as a community. This is a public health crisis — there’s a violence crisis across the nation right now. I think we all need to pay attention.”
School resource officers responded first to the scene, Wilson said. Officers used tourniquets on at least two of the victims, potentially saving their lives, police said.
Five of the teens — three boys and two girls, between the ages of 14 and 17 — were transported by ambulance to area hospitals. An 18-year-old also drove himself to the hospital with minor injuries, police said. All six victims are cooperating with police, Wilson said.
Mental health professionals will be made available to Aurora Central High School students and staff who need help after the shooting, Aurora Public Schools officials said. The district also will increase security at and around the school, according to a joint statement released by Superintendent Rico Munn and school board President Kyla Armstrong-romero.
“We are disgusted by this and other senseless acts of violence against our children who are the future of our community,” they said. “We ask for your continued support of the Aurora Central community and we ask each of you to be a proactive part of keeping all of our children safe.”
“It sounded like Iraq”
Tristan Corral, an Aurora Central senior, said he was crossing the street near the park when a car rolled past and people in the vehicle fired out the window. Corral, 18, said he saw his friend fall to the ground, while other students fled. The senior sprinted behind the school, taking shelter behind the buses as he texted his mom.
“I don’t like coming here,” Corral said from the sidewalk Monday afternoon next to his mother, bouncing nervously on his feet. “Just coming to school… you don’t know what could happen.”
Other students echoed that sentiment as they walked home from school or waited for their parents outside Monday, just feet from where the shooting took place.
“It’s not surprising,” said Anahy Vega, an Aurora Central junior. “There are always shootings around.”
Aurora Central High School, which is directly adjacent to the park, was placed on secure perimeter after the shooting. Worried parents flocked to the school afterward to pick up their kids.
Brenda Corral, Tristan’s mother, said she received his text that there was a shooting near the school but didn’t hear back while Tristan fled to safety. She came to pick him up from school to make sure he was OK.
“My stomach feels sick,” she said.
Henry Martinez lives across the street and said he heard what seemed like more than 30 gunshots. Nome Park is always full of kids hanging out during lunch, he said. Martinez said he wondered why police don’t patrol the area more.
“It’s so sad,” he said. “These kids are so young — to just throw away their lives like that… it just doesn’t make sense.”
Chet Lloyd Samuels was at a nearby laundromat when he heard a series of gunshots.
“It sounded like Iraq,” he said, praying that there weren’t kids involved. “It’s a shame.”
A rash of deadly violence
The gunfire at Nome Park on Monday follows a series of shootings in recent weeks that killed and maimed Aurora teens.
Two 16-year-olds were shot on Oct. 22 and one of the victims died of his injuries. The next day, a 15year-old boy was shot and killed. An 18-year-old was injured in a shooting on Oct. 24 and, three days later, two 17-year-olds were injured. Another 18-yearold was shot and killed Sunday.
In November 2020, both
Aurora and Denver city leaders declared youth violence a public health crisis “that knows no borders and that continues to inflict a devastating toll on both communities.” Both cities have seen an increasing number of teens killed in homicides over the last few years.
Aurora leaders in April created the Youth Violence Prevention Program in response to the increased violence.
The top two violent behaviors that program specialists have identified: gun and gang violence, said Christina Amparan, the program’s manager.
On Monday afternoon, Amparan gathered in the basement of a nearby public library with her Denver counterparts and faithbased organizations to talk through victim-support plans and ways to provide services to students and families.
In the past, youth violence prevention tended to be siloed in the various communities where they took place, said Nicole Monroe, director of Denver’s office of community violence solutions. Now leaders in different cities are working together on solutions.
“The community is tired of hearing talk,” she said. “They wanna see action.”
“We cannot let more kids become a statistic”
The increased violence is not limited to Aurora. Colorado as a whole saw a nearly 30% rise in homicides in 2020. In Denver, the number of killings last year hit their highest level since 1981, though per capita homicide rates still are lower in the city and state than they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The bloodshed has continued into 2021. On Sunday alone, two people were killed and six injured in a string of eight shootings and stabbings in Denver and Aurora.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman on Monday said the people responsible for the Nome Park shooting should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
“The most important function of government is the protection of its people and I strongly believe that public safety must always be the top priority for this city,” Coffman said in a statement.
State Sen. Rhonda Field, an Aurora Democrat, said she was “devastated” to learn about Monday’s shooting.
“As a parent who lost her son to gun violence, I understand the shock and horror these parents are experiencing,” Fields said in a statement. “No mother or father should be afraid to let their son or daughter go play at the park, attend school or go to the movie theater, yet they are forced to live in fear as gun violence continues to wreak havoc on our communities. We cannot turn a blind eye to gun violence and we cannot let more kids become a statistic.”