Family of Rashaud Johnson Make Wrongful Death Claim Against Aurora Police in Parking Spot Shooting

AURORA | A jury will likely decide whether an Aurora police officer was responsible for the May 12 shooting death of an unarmed, barefoot Black man suffering some kind of mental crisis in a private airport parking lot.

Police Officer Brandon Mills fatally shot 32-year-old Rashaud Johnson in the Parking Spot in northeast Aurora after employees there said a man was behaving erratically, wandering around the complex with no shoes on.

“Yet another unarmed Black man has been condemned to death by the Aurora Police Department,” Johnson family’s attorneys said in a statement. “Under the APD’s playbook, officers escalate encounters that a reasonable officer would resolve peacefully. APD officers bait Black citizens standing on the other side of the weapons into making one wrong move.”

The same lawyers that handled the Aurora Police wrongful death cases of Elijah McClain and Naeschylus Vinzant-Carter say they will file a new wrongful death lawsuit in Adams County district court against Mills and Aurora police. The family is seeking unspecified punitive and economic damages in their claim.

Attorneys are planning a press conference Tuesday morning in Denver.

The lawsuit comes amid an active consent decree, which was imposed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in 2021, following investigations into the Aurora Police Department’s excessive use of force and discriminatory practices, particularly against people of color. Triggered in part by the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, who died at the hands of police and rescuers after being stopped, unarmed, the decree mandates broad reforms in training, accountability, use-of-force policies, data systems and community engagement.

To read the article in its entirety , please visit : Family of Rashaud Johnson make wrongful death claim against Aurora police in Parking Spot shooting – Sentinel Colorado