Family Of Aurora Man Shot By Police Plan To Demand Bodycam Footage

The attor­ney for the fam­ily of the man shot and killed by the Aurora Police Depart­ment in the early hours of July 30 said they are will­ing to sue the City of Aurora for access to body­cam footage and other documents.

“The fam­ily deserves imme­di­ate answers as to what occurred and why Mr. Black was trag­i­cally killed in his home pro­tect­ing his fam­ily from home intrud­ers,” attor­ney Qusair Mohamedbhai said.

Mohamedb­hai and his firm have con­ducted an ini­tial inves­ti­ga­tion. Richard “Gary” Black, a 73-year-old Viet­nam War vet­eran and Pur­ple Heart recip­i­ent, was at home with his wife Jeanette, his step­son and their two grandchildren.

The fam­ily was asleep when a naked intruder broke into the home at Montview Blvd. and East Iola St., Mohamedb­hai said. The man tar­geted Black’s 11-year-old grand­son, pulling him from his bed and drag­ging him to the bath­room, where the intruder began chok­ing and attempt­ing to drown the boy.

The noise awoke Black and his step­son, who ran to the bath­room, Mohamedb­hai said. The two tried to pull the intruder off the boy, and even hit him over the head with a vase, but the intruder would not let go. It was then Black, who had a con­cealed carry weapon per­mit, shot the intruder.

The Aurora Pub­lic Safety Dis­patch Cen­ter received sev­eral 911 calls at approx­i­mately 1:29 a.m., Aurora Police Depart­ment said in a state­ment.

“While on scene offi­cers heard gun­shots fired from inside the home, and encoun­tered an armed adult male. An offi­cer dis­charged his firearm strik­ing the armed male who was trans­ported to the hos­pi­tal where he later suc­cumbed to his injuries,” the state­ment read.

The 11-year-old boy was trans­ported to the hos­pi­tal. Black’s wife also sus­tained crit­i­cal injuries dur­ing the inci­dent and is in surgery, Mohamedb­hai said.

The involved offi­cer was place on admin­is­tra­tive reas­sign­ment with pay. The 17th Judi­cial Dis­trict Attor­ney is inves­ti­gat­ing the deaths.

Black served as a lieu­tenant in the army dur­ing Viet­nam War. In addi­tion to the Pur­ple Heart, Black received the Bronze Star and the Army Com­men­da­tion Medal. After he was med­ically dis­charged, Black worked as an IRS agent for the fed­eral government.

“He unfor­tu­nately died as a hero pro­tect­ing his grand­son from what would have been cer­tain death from a home intruder,” Mohamedb­hai said.

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