Colorado: Aurora families take a stand, community control is their demand

Aurora CO – On March 1, during an unseasonably warm Saturday, family members of Kory Dillard and 15 of their supporters gathered outside of the Aurora Municipal Center, for a rally against police crimes.

Dillard, described by attendees as a beloved community member and veteran, was murdered by the Aurora Police Department (APD) on October 3, 2024.

Dillard is survived by his partner Anna Harris, who has been spending the last five months fighting for accountability and justice for Kory. She spoke to the crowd about the false narratives being spread about Dillard by APD Chief Todd Chamberlain, who characterizes Kory as a rock-wielding carjacker. Video evidence of Dillard’s death directly contradicts this false narrative, but Chamberlain evidently seeks to sweep Dillard’s murder under the rug.

“What are these wrongful deaths of Black men,” Harris asked, “but police being the judge, the jury, and the executioner, when the death penalty has been long gone in Colorado?”

The rally was a site of shared grief by another family who has lost loved ones at the hands of APD – the Lewis family.

Kiawa Lewis, the brother of Kilyn Lewis, stood amongst the attendees alongside his daughter. Kilyn was a 37-year-old unarmed Black man who was gunned down by Officer Michael Dieck while working on his car’s sound system just outside his Aurora apartment.

Standing alongside Harris, Lewis spoke, saying, “It’s been a tiring road, but the thing is they want to tire us out. But we stand together; we fight together.”

Ryan Stitzel, the chair of Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC) took to the megaphone to address District Attorney Amy Padden, saying, “These police historically have not been held accountable when they’ve done this. When they killed Kilyn Lewis they were not held accountable. When they killed 14-year-old Jor‘Dell Richardson when they pinned him down in an alley and shot him behind a dumpster they were not held accountable, and right now the District Attorney for Arapahoe County is deciding whether or not she’s going to hold these killer cops accountable and we’re here to say: you must!“

The participants of the rally chanted “Black lives matter!” and “When killer cops are on patrol, how do we stop them? Community control.”

Nels Pine, another member of DACAC, addressed the rally, stating “They write all these horrific lies in the newspaper about Kory Dillard, about Jor’Dell Richardson, where they accuse them of all sorts of crimes. Well, the people accused of those crimes aren’t alive to defend themselves against this slander, and so we’ll speak the truth. That’s the very least we could do, is speak the truth and say that they were never found guilty of anything!”

Pine continued, “They were murdered in the street by police officers who robbed them of their Sixth Amendment right to a trial by a jury of their peers. These crimes by the APD have got to stop.”

The Denver Aurora Community Action Committee ended the rally by reiterating their demands on District Attorney Amy Padden, and reaffirming their commitment to the fight against racist police violence and for community control of the police.

#AuroraCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #KillerCops #NAARPR #DACAC