Deanine Vigil has a lot of questions about the death of her son Joby Vigil after he was chased for miles by Thornton Police. One of those questions stands apart from all the others:
Why?
“If we could show this to the whole world and show them what they did to our son, we can start showing the cops that they need to be accountable for their actions,” Deanine said. “That just because they have a badge doesn't make them above the law.”
The investigation by the Jefferson County Critical Incident Response Team into the deaths of Joby and his friend Jasmine Castro is now in its fourth month. Few details have been released, and footage from body-worn cameras only shows the graphic ending of their lives. But here is what is known from the official account given by Thornton Police:
Early on April 30, Joby and Castro were spotted in a dark-colored Infiniti without license plates in the area of E 84th Ave and Washington Street in Thornton. Three Thornton officers in two unmarked cars followed the car southbound into Lakewood. They said that at one point an occupant of the car got out and fired a gun at officers.
The officers chased the car to the area of 2nd Ave. and Garrison St. in Lakewood where the pursuit stopped. When officers closed in, Joby and Castro jumped out of the driver’s side. Multiple shots were fired killing the two instantly. A gun was found on the scene near Castro.
Joby’s family learned of his fate in perhaps the worst way possible. The morning of the 2:30 a.m. shooting, Joby's father, Frank Vigil Sr., saw a news report on the shooting, including images of a vehicle that was similar to the one Joby left in the day before. He went down to the site of the shooting.
“When I got there, of course I wasn't near the scene and I just started to question,” Frank, Sr. said. “I was like, well, what happened? Who got shot or what? And the Lakewood Police, they weren't very clear about anything.”
And while the family was eventually told Joby was dead, then shown the camera footage of the shooting, they remain frustrated with the slow pace of the investigation, a common concern among family members of those injured and killed in police-involved shootings.
For now, they want the world to know more about what was lost when Joby was killed.
Great athlete and always helpful
Joby Vigil, who was 31 years old, was born and raised in Denver and was a graduate of West High School.
His family said he excelled in sports, especially in wrestling. He was raised by both parents along with his brother Frank, Jr. and two adopted brothers.
“We were always a close family and we did a lot of things together, not only with just our immediate family, but with other our cousins and their cousins and stuff like that,” said Frank, Sr. “We would all do vacations and everything all the time.”
He said Joby was a great athlete and excelled at wrestling.
“Wrestling was one of his number one sports. He would wrestle in many national competitions. He went to Oklahoma and wrestled,” Frank, Sr. said. “But once he got out of that, out of high school, then he decided he wanted to get into Brazilian jiu jitsu, which he actually excelled in too.”
Then Joby injured his back in an accident. Frank Sr. said his son began to fall into drugs because he was on painkillers at the time.
Joby had gotten in trouble a few years ago for stealing a vehicle. At the time of his death, he was working at Haven of Hope, a nonprofit day shelter that serves the homeless community. He was close to finishing his two-year probation which would’ve ended in June.
Deanine said her son was a kind person and never treated people like they were below him.
“He always brought people home from the shelter all the time. If they needed a shower and they weren't able to get a shower there, he'd say, ‘Mom, they just need a shower. Or Mom, I'm just going to wash their clothes,’” Deanine said. “Or he was always doing that kind of thing. And he says, ‘Mom, you're always helping everybody and you always tell us to help people.’”
The day before the shooting
Deanine had gotten off of work about 1 p.m. the day before and saw Joby outside pulling dandelions with his hands. The vehicle he was in at the time of his death was in the driveway earlier that day. The driver of the vehicle was Jasmine Castro who had lived next door at the time.
Joby told his mom that he had a flat on his Camaro and that Castro was taking him to get new tires. Castro, who was 30 years old, had been introduced to Joby by one of his friends. The family didn’t know much about her, other than she was trying to get out of an abusive relationship. But, Deanine asked her about her car without a license plate.
“She said that it happened when she was trying to get away from her ex,” Deanine said. “And I just told her that can't be good. You’ve got to be careful because when you're out there, you're going to get pulled over and stuff like that. And she just said, ‘I know.’ I know. And that was the last conversation that I had with her.”
After Joby had finished pulling dandelions, he told his mom that he would see her later because he had to go to work the next morning.
“And then he said, ‘I love you,’” Deanine said. “And, that was the last we've seen of him.”
Waiting for a conclusion
Castro’s family did not respond to a message seeking more information about Jasmine. And it’s not known whether they have retained an attorney as they wait for the investigation to be completed.
The Vigil family has hired Ciara Anderson of Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, one of the leading law firms in Colorado that represents those who were injured or killed by police. Anderson said this isn’t the first time Thornton Police officers have gone outside of their jurisdiction to follow someone.
“Particularly troubling is that Thornton has a well-documented history of pursuing people well outside of their jurisdiction and creating dangerous circumstances that are ultimately unsafe for suspects, the police and the community at large,” Anderson said. “We don't know why these officers traveled so far beyond their jurisdiction for expired tags. They didn't make any effort to pull the vehicle over. And so there's a lot of problematic policing going on in this case.”
Colorado law allows officers to pursue beyond their jurisdiction when they are in hot pursuit of a felon. It’s not yet clear what felony Thornton Police were investigating from the point they began the chase until they say they were shot at by someone from the car. In their initial release on the shooting, Thornton Police described the car as “suspicious” because it lacked license plates, but it’s still not known whether the car had been reported stolen anywhere.
“At no point did these officers inform the other jurisdictions that they were doing this pursuit, nor did they seek the assistance of any other jurisdiction, which signals that they were not afraid or thinking that they were pursuing a dangerous felon,” Anderson said.
The family says the body-worn camera footage doesn’t add up
The Vigil Family has since viewed unedited body-worn camera footage of the shooting. They say officers told them different information from what they saw on the footage.
The footage, which CPR News has reviewed, shows officers shouting commands at Joby and Castro to put their hands up as they exited the vehicle. At the same time, officers were firing shots. The officers approached the bodies and handcuffed both. The gun was found near Castro.
“You can see the officer roll her over and he's confused. He's like, ‘it's a woman or it's a girl.’ So, he didn't know the whole time,” said Frank Vigil, Jr. “So the whole time in the video they're talking about him. He was the driver.”
Frank, Sr. said he was told that both Joby and Castro were given resuscitation, but the video indicates to the family that officers only gave Castro CPR after they found a light pulse.
“They never touched my son in any way as far as trying to give him CPR or anything like that,” Frank, Sr. said. “The only time they touched him is when they put the handcuffs on him and they said, ‘if he moves, put another hole in him, shoot him again.’”
The family said that officers never visited them to confirm if Joby was their son and talk with them about what happened. They said the only contact they had with police was at the scene.
The family feels like the officers were looking for trouble due to the lack of knowledge of Joby and Castro’s background.
“When you don't have an identification on a vehicle to run any sort of background check and know who was in the car other than what you are seeing with your own eyes, it's easy for us to assume then that they were being profiled because they had no knowledge of who was in the car,” said Renee Ortega, Joby’s sister-in-law.
The names of the three officers investigated have not been released. Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Brionna Boatright said in an email that their names will not be made public until the CIRT investigation is completed.
As of August 9, the investigation is still ongoing. The Vigil family is seeking accountability for the officers involved in their son’s death.
“Like I've said before, when we need help, we call the police for help," said Deanine. "But who's helping us from the police?”
