AURORA | Kilyn Lewis was unarmed and holding a cellphone when he was fatally shot by an Aurora SWAT officer in May, body-worn camera footage released Thursday by the Aurora Police Department shows.
In clips taken from the perspectives of multiple officers, Lewis can be seen raising his hands, one of which held a phone, before officer Michael Dieck fired a single shot, which police say caused Lewis’ death.
Members of Lewis’ family were shown the footage of the May 23 shooting before it was released to the public. They reacted with grief and anger to what they described as the latest example of Aurora police taking the life of an unarmed Black man.
“It was all flat-out murder,” Kilyn’s brother, Kiawa, told the Sentinel. “After everything that’s going on, we’re calling all leaders to step in and make something happen.”
The shooting is being investigated by the department’s Internal Investigations Bureau as well as by the 18th Judicial District’s Critical Incident Response Team, which has the power to recommend criminal charges for Dieck.
“We take any use of force seriously, especially when there is a loss of life,” interim police chief Heather Morris said in the video released by APD, which was introduced and partially narrated by Morris. “Any loss of life is a tragedy for an individual’s family, the community and the officers involved, no matter the circumstances.”
Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, the law firm that represented the mother of Elijah McClain and today represents the Lewis family, stated in the news release that if a civilian shot and killed Lewis in similar circumstances, they would be charged with murder.
“No APD police officer should be above the law, not even in Aurora, the Colorado town whose police force has become notorious for killing unarmed Black men,” the firm’s attorney’s wrote. “For years, Aurora’s leaders have had ample notice that there is a deadly problem in the APD. They either refused to address it head on, or they lacked the political courage needed to fix it.”
Officers were attempting to take Kilyn Lewis into custody at the time of the shooting — the 37-year-old was wanted at the time for attempted first-degree murder after allegedly taking part in a May 5 drive-by shooting that wounded a man in Denver.
Morris said Aurora and Denver police tracked Kilyn Lewis to an apartment complex in the 300 block of South Ironton Street, where Aurora SWAT officers confronted him as he was standing near the open trunk of a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo, one of the vehicles visible on surveillance camera footage taken of the drive-by shooting weeks prior.
The body-worn camera footage released Thursday shows officers approaching Kilyn Lewis with their guns raised and demanding that Lewis get on the ground.
Kilyn Lewis starts to back away and reaches behind his back. He then moves his hands, one of which holds a cellphone, from behind his back and raises them, and is shot once by Dieck. As he falls to the ground, Kilyn Lewis yells multiple times, “I don’t have nothing.”
Morris said in the APD video that, at the time of the shooting, Dieck had worked as an Aurora police officer for 12 years and had served on the SWAT team for eight years. According to Morris, SWAT officers provided emergency medical care to Lewis, who was pronounced dead after he was taken to a hospital.
Kilyn Lewis, 37, in a photo from his Facebook page. SENTINEL SCREENSHOT
Kiawa Lewis told the Sentinel that he received a phone call from his mother informing him of his younger sibling’s death while commuting home from work. He described Kilyn as “loving, caring and someone who would give you the shirt off his back.”
The Lewis family has been outspoken in its condemnation of the actions of Dieck, demanding consequences from police and city lawmakers.
At a June 10 meeting of Aurora’s City Council, they said Dieck had acted as “judge, jury and executioner,” and called for the establishment of a civilian oversight entity with authority over the police department.
In their news release, attorneys for the Lewis family said they plan to hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the officer-involved shooting. The release also invites members of the public to donate to Kilyn Lewis’ widow, two sons and the rest of his family at https://gofund.me/83197459.
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