DENVER — A federal lawsuit filed last Thursday by the estate of Kilyn Lewis alleges that systemic issues with Aurora’s training, supervision and discipline of its police officers led to the deadly police shooting of the unarmed Black man in 2024.
The federal complaint, filed in U.S. District Court of Colorado, is the second lawsuit against the City of Aurora. Last year, Lewis’ family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the officer who fatally shot Lewis.
In that lawsuit, the family alleges Aurora “had the right and ability to control” the actions of SWAT Officer Michael Dieck, who fired the fatal round that killed Lewis during a SWAT operation, and alleges Dieck’s actions were “willful and wanton” at the time of the shooting.
Denver political reporter Colette Bordelon breaks down the contents of the new lawsuit in the video below:
The new lawsuit alleges the Lewis shooting is “precisely the kind of predictable constitutional injury that adequate policies, training, supervision, discipline, and force-review systems are supposed to prevent.”
The plaintiffs say the city’s failure to adopt practices outlined by the city’s independent consent decree monitor following the shooting resulted in a rushed operation where officers “issued conflicting commands, failed to de-escalate, failed to use available time and cover, failed to use available less-lethal options, and treated a non-threatening movement toward compliance as justification for deadly force.”
A consent decree was established in Aurora in November 2021 following several incidents involving Aurora PD and Aurora Fire Rescue, including the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. The purpose of the consent decree is to reform the two departments after the Colorado Attorney General’s Office found violations of state and federal laws due to racially biased policing and use of force.
Lewis, 37, was ambushed by members of Aurora’s SWAT team who tried to arrest him on an attempted first-degree murder warrant out of Denver on May 23, 2024.
“He was just that person to protect you when he felt like you were in some type of danger, or someone to lift you up when your spirits are down," said Lewis' mother, LaRonda Jones. “He always could get a laugh out of you."
Bodycam video from the shooting shows officers driving up to Lewis at the parking lot of an apartment complex before he was surrounded and ordered to get on the ground.
Less than 10 seconds later, Dieck fired one shot after Lewis was seen moving one of his hands out of view to grab an object. That object was later determined to be a cellphone.
Jones told Denver7 that it feels like time has stood still since May of 2024. Lewis' brother, Kiawa Lewis, echoed that sentiment.
"I feel like I'm in a matrix, like this all just happened yesterday, and it's still so fresh," said Kiawa. "I haven't had time to actually sit with it. Days go by, and it still seems like time just stopped. It hasn't processed yet.”
- Warning: The body camera footage in the video player below could be disturbing to some. Viewer discretion is advised.
“He was holding only a cell phone and snack food. He was not armed. He was not taking a shooting stance. He was not fleeing. He was not charging. He did not threaten anyone,” the lawsuit claims. “He did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to Officer Dieck or anyone else.”
The lawsuit claims Dieck “chose to approach Mr. Lewis with a lethal firearm” even though there were “other reasonable options … to take Mr. Lewis into custody without deadly force,” including the use of a 40mm baton launcher Dieck had on hand before switching to his pistol.
"This federal lawsuit will be a reminder to the police department, particularly Aurora Police Department, that if they proceed above and outside the law, to be ready for the consequences for their actions," Jones said. “Justice will be served.”
Aurora city officials, however, defended the officer’s use of force in the months following the shooting.
In October 2024, former Arapahoe County District Attorney John Kellner said the shooting was justified as Dieck, “believed there was an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, to himself and others.”
A separate report from the Aurora Police Department released in November of that year found Dieck did not violate agency policy in the deadly shooting.
But Aurora’s Independent Consent Decree 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."
The report also raised concerns about Dieck’s history in prior shootings, saying it raised potential questions about the selection criteria for officers “assigned to SWAT operations and APD’s retention policies for members of the SWAT team.”
Aurora
Aurora monitor asks APD to examine questions surrounding Kilyn Lewis shooting
Those questions, along with “constructive notice that APD had systemic problems involving excessive force, deficient use-of-force review, deficient accountability, deficient de-escalation practices, deficient training, and deficient supervision,” showed that the city was “deliberately indifferent to the known and obvious consequences of its failure to adequately train, supervise, and discipline APD officers,” according to the lawsuit.
Further, the lawsuit claims that APD’s own Internal Investigations Bureau file had documentation of shortcomings for how it handled accountability of its own officers.
“Those omissions are probative of municipal liability because they show that APD’s review process focused on whether officers could be cleared under existing policy rather than whether APD’s policies, training, supervision, and customs caused a predictable and avoidable constitutional injury,” the lawsuit alleges.
The plaintiffs also claim Aurora had ample, constructive notice that its training, supervision, and discipline were deficient and that constitutional violations were “plainly obvious” and “highly predictable.”
“Despite that notice, the City and its final policymakers failed to take reasonable steps to end the unconstitutional customs and practices, demonstrating deliberate indifference toward the constitutional rights of the members of the public who would foreseeably become future victims of resulting uses of unreasonable force by APD officers,” the complaint states.
While the federal filing is seeking compensation for the family as a result of the deadly shooting, Jones said no amount of money will ever bring back her son.
“This is a lifetime of grief that people don't understand," Jones said. "We, as America, as people, as community, need to stand up and say enough — no more of this... I hope you're ready, tie them boots up tight, because here we come.”
As of Friday, the City of Aurora had not yet been served with the second lawsuit, according to city spokesman Ryan Luby, who added that the city does not comment on pending litigation.
The 2025 wrongful death lawsuit is still going through the courts, he said.
Denver7's Colette Bordelon contributed to this report.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.