Body camera video shown to family of 14-year-old killed by police
AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — Aurora’s police chief reviewed body camera video with the family of Jor’Dell Richardson, the 14-year-old boy killed by police after a reported armed robbery last week.
Interim Police Chief Art Acevedo met with Richardson’s family representatives and lawyers on Tuesday afternoon, according to the police department. The family is represented by the Rathod Mohamedbhai law firm.
“They were traumatized by the shooting death of a boy they loved,” reads a Tuesday statement from the law firm. “Viewing the videos left them with more questions than answers.”
The firm said the video came from two officers who were involved in the shooting.
Colorado law requires police to wait 72 hours to publicly release body camera video after providing it to the family in the case, police said. Acevedo expects to meet with the news media on Friday afternoon.
FOX31 requested the video last week, after the shooting.
Richardson’s family members have called for the body camera video to be released. In an interview with FOX31 on Friday, the boy’s father, Jameco Richardson, said police shot his son in the back.
Police say Richardson was among a group of teens suspected of robbing a convenience store near 8th Avenue and Dayton Street to get vape cartridges. They accuse the teen, who would have started high school this fall, of having a gun when he was shot on June 1. But they have not released much information about what happened before.
Several young people implicated in armed robbery
At least two others were taken into custody in the June 1 incident. Police said they were also searching for several suspects who fled in a Kia Sedona minivan.
The incident began when a sergeant with Aurora’s Gang Intervention Unit first spotted the alleged robbers in hoodies and surgical masks near a convenience store, Acevedo said after the shooting. He called other officers to the scene to help chase the suspects.
On the day of the shooting, Acevedo said one of the officers encountered the boy with a pistol and ordered him to let go of the gun.
“At one point, the officer discharges his firearm,” Acevedo said.
The officer who shot the boy has been with the Aurora Police Department since 2017 and the gang unit since 2019, Acevedo said. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave.
The 18th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the shooting while Aurora Police will investigate the robbery. Aurora’s Direct Action Response Team, or DART, and the SWAT team was looking for the other people who were involved.
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