AURORA, Colo. — The Aurora City Council on Tuesday voted to suspend in-person meetings and public comment until a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Kilyn Lewis is settled.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman also announced the suspension on his Facebook page Tuesday evening.
Lewis, a Black man, was unarmed when he was shot and killed by an Aurora SWAT officer on May 23, 2024. Coffman said city council meetings have been disrupted in the year since Lewis' death, with protesters threatening and harassing council members.
The mayor alleges protesters have ignored the city council's rules of conduct during the public comment listening period, including more than one person standing at the podium, disregarding allotted time limits for each speaker and denying other people who were signed up to speak the opportunity to do so. They have repeated demands for a financial settlement from the city following the killing of Lewis.
"Their goal is simple: write them a check and they will go away. Until then, they will continue to disrupt our meetings," Coffman said on social media. "They have no choice but to continue disrupting our meetings because their lawsuit is meritless. This is why we have no choice but to stop all in-person council meetings, and go virtual, until their lawsuit has been concluded."
The Aurora City Council voted 7-3 on Tuesday to move their meetings online and do away with public comment sessions. Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, who voted for the suspension, said the disruptions have prevented the city from conducting its business.
“We’re done with the disrespect going every direction,” Jurinsky said. “We’re going to conduct city business, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
But critics said the council is silencing voices from the community, especially those demanding accountability.
“Yes, there were moments where we shut the meetings down,” said Auon’tai Anderson, a former Denver Public Schools Board of Education member who has been supporting the Lewis family. “And it was because they kept shutting out public comment. It was a cause and an effect.”
Anderson, who’s been a frequent presence at Aurora City Council meetings, said as a former elected official, he never would have supported suspending public input.
“It looks like this might be too hard of a job for some of them,” Anderson said. “But that’s okay. The voters have an opportunity to send some new leadership this November.”
Councilmember Alison Coombs, who voted against the measure, accused the majority of using the lawsuit as an excuse to quiet dissent.
“The council majority has determined that they would like to find any means necessary to shut those folks down, to find ways to spend as little time as possible to listen to them,” Coombs said. “And what folks may or may not know is that that type of litigation can take years to resolve, so my colleagues are really committing — just in order to not listen to one group of people on one topic — to stop having in-person meetings as a body, potentially for multiple years.”
Denver7 has reported extensively on Lewis's death and the aftermath. Read our previous coverage below
- 'It's justified murder': Aurora City Council member's comments drawing pushback from mother of Kilyn Lewis
- Family of Kilyn Lewis sues City of Aurora, SWAT officer for 2024 shooting death of unarmed Black man
- Independent monitor applauds Aurora's 'embrace' of consent decree, response to Kilyn Lewis' death
- District attorney will not press criminal charges against Aurora SWAT officer who shot, killed Kilyn Lewis
- Aurora independent monitor asks APD to examine questions surrounding Kilyn Lewis death
- Rally before Aurora City Council meeting brings attention to Kilyn Lewis investigation, Venezuelan immigrants
- Aurora officer who shot, killed Kilyn Lewis did not violate agency policy, report finds
- 'We demand justice': Supporters of Kilyn Lewis speak out at Aurora City Council meeting
Last month, Lewis's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Aurora and the SWAT officer who killed him.
Both the Aurora and Denver police departments had Lewis under surveillance on an outstanding warrant for attempted first-degree murder in relation to a shooting on May 5, 2024. When they tried to arrest Lewis, he pulled an object out of his pocket — later identified as a cell phone — in front of armed Aurora SWAT members, seen in bodycam video footage released in June 2024.
18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said the officers formed a semi-circle around Lewis as he was exiting his car. Lewis moved from the trunk to the driver's side door, as then Aurora SWAT Officer Michael Dieck told Lewis to "get on the ground" several times. Lewis "raised his right hand while keeping his left hand by his side, and continued to walk towards the driver's side door of the car," according to Kellner.
Once Lewis reached the door, he "lowered his right hand and began to move his hand around in the vicinity of the right rear of his pants." Kellner said that Lewis "[appeared] to manipulate something in his waistband or pocket." Following a second round of commands, Lewis "slightly bends his knees and appears to be retrieving something from his right rear pocket," according to Kellner. That's when Dieck fatally shot Lewis.
On Oct. 11, 2024, the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office announced it would not press criminal charges against Dieck. In a report, Kellner found that Dieck was justified in using deadly force and said criminal charges were not warranted. A separate report from the Aurora Police Department also determined the officer did not violate agency policy.
The lawsuit alleges Lewis was given “conflicting commands,” which included simultaneous orders to get on the ground and show his hands. It further alleges that Dieck did not issue any verbal warning he would shoot, “nor allow sufficient time for Kilyn to comply” with what the family claims were “overlapping and conflicting commands being shouted at him.”
In a report last year, Aurora’s independent monitor raised questions surrounding APD’s handling of the shooting, specifically why officers approached Lewis without cover when the department considered the situation a “high-risk stop." However, in a follow-up report, the independent monitor applauded the Aurora Police Department's response to Lewis's death.
Officer Dieck was removed from his SWAT position following a joint review by the Chief's Review Board (CRB) and Force Review Board (FRB). Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain also instituted several changes to his department's SWAT operations.
It’s unclear how long council meetings will be held virtually. Lawsuits similar to the one the Lewis family filed have taken years to resolve.
“The last time we had this was Elijah McClain, and that lawsuit took almost four years for there to be an outcome,” said Anderson. “So, are now the citizens of Aurora deprived of in-person meetings and no longer being able to speak freely to their city council until 2029? That is absurd, and it should be something that every citizen of Aurora is insulted with.”
The Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership, an advocacy group in Aurora, released the following statement Wednesday in response to Coffman's move to suspend Aurora City Council's in-person meetings:
"We have always been clear; this movement is not only about Kilyn. It is about every voice that has been silenced, every Black life ignored, and every name that risks being added to a growing list of the lost. We do not forget. We do not yield. And we will not allow those in positions of authority to hide from the truth or from the people they claim to serve."
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