Aurora officers who shot and a man carrying a tactical airsoft rifle thought the suspect had an AR-15.
The new Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said Monday that he wished the officers had an alternative in handling the confrontation.
Chamberlain discussed the events that led to the Oct. 3 alleged carjacking-turned deadly during a press conference Monday. Photos of body-worn camera footage of the suspect carrying the weapon, a comparison of the weapon used and an authentic AR-15, and a map of the area when the shooting occurred were presented.
In describing the weapons, Chamberlain said the suspect knew why he was there with the weapon.
“When those officers arrived, they weren't dealing with minutes, they weren't dealing with hours, they were dealing with seconds. And unfortunately, our suspect, he did have time to consider those aspects,” Chamberlain said. “He was there to intimidate, to terrorize and to threaten that community. And, he had already committed a violent crime of robbery. And so now he made that other choice that he's going to take this weapon, which is almost an exact replica of a real AR-15, and unfortunately put officers in a situation where they have to make a split second decision.”
Last week, Aurora Police received multiple reports of two men fighting in a 11900 block of East 16th Avenue around 2 p.m. They said the fight occurred in a parking lot near Brent’s Place, a nonprofit that provides housing for families in medical crisis. One of the men told officers that the suspect tried to steal his vehicle. The callers said one of the men was carrying what looked like an AR-15.
“It escalated even further, at which point our suspect took a rock and hit our victim in the head,” Chamberlain said. “After both of them fought for almost five minutes or more, the suspect left, went across the street, went into a van that he had parked at that apartment complex, and he removed that weapon that was described.”
When officers arrived on scene, witnesses described a person in a black hoodie, walking around the area of the nearby Elm Grove Apartments, waving and brandishing the weapon in a hostile manner. One witness, an elderly Hispanic woman, said she and the suspect got into a tussle with the cart she was pushing at the time. She also said he also threatened to kill her.
The officers yelled at him to drop the weapon several times. The suspect then pointed the weapon toward officers. They fired off two rounds striking the suspect.
He was treated at the scene and then taken to the hospital where he died.
The suspect has been identified as 37-year-old Kory Dillard by his girlfriend, Anna Harris. She told CBS Colorado that he was a father and four-year combat veteran whose hobbies include flying drones, 3D printing, and airsoft SpeedQB.
Chamberlain said the incident didn’t require a crisis response team or mental health intervention.
“When you look at the policies, when you look at the procedures, when you look at the dynamics for that type of response by crisis response teams, it does not fall into this category,” Chamberlain said. “It was a violent incident from the very beginning that Aurora PD became aware of it.”
The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave while the 17th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team, or CIRT, investigates the incident.
