AURORA, Colo. — Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain on Friday released the 911 call and officer body-camera video from a police shooting that killed a 17-year-old boy last week.
The shooting happened on Sept. 18 at the Conoco gas station in the 200 block of South Havana Street near East Alameda Avenue.
In a press conference Friday, Chamberlain said the incident began at 7:33 p.m. when the suspect — identified as 17-year-old Blaze Aleczander Balle-Mason — called 911 and told the operator he had a loaded 9mm pistol in his pocket and planned to "shoot up" the gas station and surrounding area. He also reportedly said he wanted to shoot responding officers.
Three officers arrived at the scene at 7:43 p.m. with a "tactical plan" in which one officer was armed with a rifle, the second with a pistol and the third with a "40mm less-lethal launcher."
Chamberlain said his officers approached the suspect, identified themselves as police and ordered the teen to show his hands. The 17-year-old ignored those commands, according to the police chief, and advanced toward the officers with one hand concealed in his pocket.
The officer with the "less-lethal launcher" fired "multiple rounds" at the 17-year-old, striking him, according to Chamberlain. The rounds, however, had "little to no impact or effect" on the suspect.
Chamberlain said his officers retreated around the corner, and the suspect began to "chase" police. The teen's hand remained in his pocket, according to the police chief.
As the suspect neared the officers, one officer fired his weapon, striking the 17-year-old. Officers provided life-saving measures until medical personnel arrived.
The teen was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
- Watch Chief Chamberlain's full press conference in the video player below
According to Chamberlain, the time between when officers first made contact with the suspect and when shots were fired was 15 seconds.
Investigators did not recover a handgun; however, Chamberlain cited the suspect's 911 call, his failure to show his hands, the ineffectiveness of the "less-lethal" rounds, and his advancement toward officers as reasons for the lethal action.
"This incident — and there is no getting around this — this incident is tragic for everyone involved, and I mean that sincerely, for everybody involved," Chamberlain said. "I mean, it's tragic for the suspect. It's tragic for the people that were there, that witnessed [it]. It's tragic for the city of Aurora. It's also incredibly tragic for the officers that were involved in this."
Denver7 has been working to get answers about the police shooting, including why a mental health crisis team wasn’t dispatched, considering the teen threatened violence against officers in his 911 call.
"They are not for calls that involved active violence or the threat of active violence, and that's what this call was," Chamberlain responded. "This call was not a mental health call.... [Officers] are trained also in crisis intervention. Every member of our organization goes through a suicide by cop training… they understand de-escalation. So all of that stuff is part of what they have in their toolkit, all of that was exploited, all of that was used."
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The Sept. 18 incident comes just weeks after Aurora police shot and killed Rajon Belt-Stubblefield, an unarmed Black man, after a confrontation following a traffic stop. Chamberlain said in both cases, his officers worked to prevent lethal force but were forced to use it.
“In both of these cases, whether people like it or not, the suspects' actions created these rapidly evolving, life-threatening situations,” Chamberlain said Friday. “Our officers exploited de-escalation; our officers exploited communication; our officers attempted to exploit other tools and alternatives other than lethal force. Unfortunately, on both of these incidents, the suspect and the suspects did not allow that to occur. That is not something that is unknown; that is factual data. That is factual information that we have seen through the collection of evidence at this point in both of these investigations.”
Xavier Davis, president and lead mentor for ROYAL mentoring group, works with at-risk youth to stop violence in Aurora and Denver.
“We got two people that lost their lives that were unarmed,” he said of the recent police shootings of the Aurora teen and Rajon Belt-Stubblefield. “The shootings, the killings, are just, they're just totally unnecessary.”
Davis said both adults and young people that he works with are feeling more on edge than ever because of economic uncertainty, which is something police should be aware of. He is also calling for changes to police training.
“We would rather him be in a hospital with a bullet in his leg than dead,” Davis said of the shooting victims. “When you have shootings like this, it creates more of a distrust with the community.”
Police said this incident is being investigated internally and by the district attorney’s office.
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