Man fatally shot by Aurora police after shooting home intruder identified as Vietnam veteran

AURORA, Colo. — The man who was fatally shot by police after he allegedly shot a man break­ing into his home has been iden­ti­fied by a fam­ily attor­ney as a vet­eran of the Viet­nam War.

Attor­ney Sid­dhartha Rathod said Richard “Gary” Black Jr. was shot and killed by Aurora police early Monday.

Black was a for­mer fed­eral agent and a Pur­ple Heart recip­i­ent, Rathod said.

Around 1:30 a.m. Mon­day, Aurora police responded to a report that a man had bro­ken into a home near E. Montview Boule­vard and Iola Street.

Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said in a news release Mon­day that arriv­ing offi­cers heard gun­shots and ran into Black, who lived in the home and was armed. An offi­cer shot him and he died at a local hospital.

Offi­cers found a juve­nile injured inside the home and a man shot dead on the floor of a bath­room. The child was taken to the hos­pi­tal for seri­ous, but not life-threatening injuries that were caused by the intruder, Aurora police said in Monday’s release.

Metz said Mon­day that Black, who was a res­i­dent of the home, is believed to have fatally shot the man who broke into the home.

Rathod said that the man who broke into the home was naked and attacked Black’s 11-year-old grand­son by try­ing to drown the boy in a bath­tub. Rathod said Black fought the man off and even­tu­ally killed him.

“Gary is absolutely the hero who saved his grandson’s life,” Rathod said. “His death is a tragic incident.”

Rathod said the grand­son has since been released from the hospital.