Black Aurora Councilmember Called Out for "Betraying" Protesters, Calling Them "Terrorists"

"Bullies, terrorists, anarchists, opportunists, provocateurs."

These were words used by Aurora City Council member Stephanie Hancock — a Black woman and self-described "longtime friend" to many in Aurora's Black community — to describe people protesting over the death of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed by an Aurora police officer in May.

The protesters had taken over the council's July 8 meeting for a second straight time after hijacking the last gathering on June 24, and Hancock had apparently had enough.

"The reason why we serve in this council is to serve this city and to serve these citizens...and the fact that we have people screaming and hollering at us and yelling at us and calling us out by name breaks my heart," she said, getting emotional.

"It hurts me deeply, because I stand to serve this city and this community and I will continue to do so — and I will not allow a bunch of bullies, terrorists, anarchists, opportunists, provocateurs and others who want to lift their voices so they can get social media clicks to make me any less dedicated to the principles of this city, of this country, that I am today."

Body camera footage released by the Aurora Police Department in June shows Kilyn — a 37-year-old Black man and father of two wanted for attempted murder — being fatally shot by an officer last month while he had both of his arms raised and a cell phone in his hand.

"I don't have nothing!" Kilyn can be heard screaming on video after he's shot once in the stomach by APD SWAT Officer Michael Dieck, who was among a group of cops looking to arrest Lewis on May 23 for a shooting that left a 63-year-old man hospitalized.

"I don't have nothing!" Kilyn repeats, while surrounded by the heavily armed SWAT officers, none of whom — other than Dieck — fired shots.

Hancock, a United States Air Force veteran, staunchly opposes the Lewis protests and supports "American principles," like standing for the Pledge of Allegiance, she says. During the July 8 meeting, she conducted her verbal assault from behind closed doors after Mayor Mike Coffman and other council members retreated to the back for a virtual meeting following the takeover.

During closing reports, she called out protesters for not standing for the pledge of allegiance that night and for what she considered to be an attack on "the principles" of Aurora and "this country."

"For them to storm the city council meeting, and to yell and scream and curse and call people horrible names, was wrong," Hancock tells Westword. "The city council has nothing to do with an active police investigation. It would be improper for us to engage in at all. We have no jurisdiction over it at all."
Protesters have gone after Hancock and the rest of the council for not engaging with them or taking requests made at council meetings, including a push for a public apology for Lewis's death.

Councilmember Alison Coombs, one of the only members who's had talks and listened to the Lewis supporters, put a resolution on the July 8 agenda asking for an apology to be made and condolences to be offered to Lewis's family. Supporters were called up during the public comment period to speak one by one, but most offered to give up their time to talk about the resolution instead.

The group, however, didn't make it that far: Hancock motioned to strike down the resolution, leading to an 8-2 vote in favor.

"She's a real-life devil," Lewis's father, Robert Lewis Jr., told Westword after the vote. "Just sitting on her throne in hell, betraying her own people."

Hearing Hancock, one of the city's only two Black councilmembers — and a person that many of the protesters say they've known for decades — kill the Coombs resolution and then chew out the Lewis demonstrators was especially hard, the supporters say, given Aurora's history with police-involved deaths of Black residents.

It also didn't help that some of the people in attendance tell Westword they know Hancock personally and supported her after her son, Michael Hancock (not to be confused with Denver's former mayor), was arrested on first-degree murder charges for the 2018 shooting death of a passenger he was transporting while working for Uber, despite claiming self-defense. He was found not guilty.

"It's ridiculous," said Lewis Jr. "People don't take the time nowadays to really find out who they're rooting for."

Taz Coleman, a longtime pal of Hancock's who has been protesting at city council meetings in support of the Lewis family, wore a "Justice for Michael Hancock" t-shirt to the July 8 gathering as a symbolic jab.

"I've known [Hancock] for decades," Coleman says. "I know her family, I know her husband; she even has a nickname for my son. So this is all very personal. We are all just so disappointed in her."

Hancock says she doesn't have any personal feelings about the Lewis protests or what's being said about her "one way or the other." She tells Westword she believes there are those who support the Lewis family and are actually sincere in their efforts, and then "those engaged in a lot of hyperbole and hyperbolic language that excites people."

If you want to know her thoughts on the situation as a councilmember, Hancock says "just go watch the tape" of her talking at the July 8 meeting.

"I stand by what I said," she says.

Former DPS board vice president Auon'tai Anderson, who now runs the Center for Advancing Black Excellence in Education and is helping lead the Lewis protests with fellow activist MiDian Holmes, sent out a press release on July 10 calling for Hancock to be censured for her "terrorists, anarchists, opportunists, provocateurs" comment.

"Hancock egregiously referred to the family and community supporting Kilyn E. Lewis," the release said. "This reprehensible action cannot go unaddressed."

Hancock clarifies that her statement was aimed at people in the crowd, but not Lewis's family specifically or anyone close to them.

"To say that I called Kilyn Lewis's family terrorists, I never said that," Hancock insists. "I said there were terrorists, opportunists, provocateurs and people who want to get Facebook clicks. I named no specific people or a person. And for someone to twist that around and make it that, it's just a big fat lie. They're doing it to whip people up in a frenzy. It's sickening. It's sick."

Anderson, Holmes, Coleman and others who spoke to Westword after the council meeting said they believed Hancock taking the charge against the protesters and Coombs's resolution was an act of "tokenism."

"This was a classic, 'go do masters' bidding,'" Anderson argues. "And that's what we saw here. None of the white councilmembers had the courage to stand up and say, 'I want to take this resolution off.' Instead, they were fine letting it stay on the agenda to just vote down later on at the meeting. And then for Councilmember Hancock to sit there and do the mayor's bidding — and then degrade and compare us to individuals who have tried to destroy our nation during 9/11 — is disgusting. She compared us to those who want to inflict harm upon our law enforcement. But she would never say that about the individuals who stormed the [U.S.] Capitol on January 6, which is appalling for me. To her, fifty Black people are terrorists for saying, 'We just want you to hear us.'"

Hancock believes her conservative beliefs, as brought up by Anderson, are part of what's fueling her beef with protesters and activists within the Black community. She tells Westword that it's something she's been getting hounded about for years.

"The fact that I'm a Black conservative, people already dislike me because I believe in principles," Hancock says. "I'm [into] traditional family values — faith, family, freedom, focus — and there are people who don't subscribe to that. And I'm okay with it, because that's why America is America. They can say whatever they want to say about me. That's fine. I know what the truth is and I stand on that."

Hancock doesn't believe it's her job as a councilmember to apologize and offer condolences to Lewis's family. She doesn't know all the details and says that even if she did, the council would always remain "mute" on the subject, because it has nothing to do with law enforcement.

"My job is to make sure that the streets are paved, that neighbors are addressed with their issues, that we're doing the public work and things that we should be doing, not getting involved in law enforcement operations," Hancock says. "That is not my job, and for folks to try and force us into that role, it's not proper."

Holmes calls Hancock and the council's rationalization for not speaking about the Lewis killing or to protesters about the Coombs resolution on July 8 "an excuse" for APD's failures and it ultimately shows the city's refusal to listen to them. "It's like a drug," Holmes says.

According to Hancock, the protesters were heard for two council meetings prior to the July 8 meeting and have continued to ask for the same thing, which she and the council can't grant. "'We want you to find this cop, we want you to do this, this, this and this.' Things that the city council cannot do," Hancock reiterates. "So they were heard. Don't be misled into thinking we stifled their abilities to be heard."

Asked what her response would be to people who say she's betraying the Black community — including Lewis Jr., Coleman and Anderson — Hancock offers up a question of her own.

"Because they're Black and I'm Black, whatever the circumstances are, I'm supposed to be supportive of that?" she says.

One person who was willing to listen to the protesters on July 8 was outgoing APD Chief Heather Morris, who was called down to hear them out and offer condolences for the Lewis shooting, which she did after saying she had already.


“I have offered my condolences to the family, and I will do that again,” Morris told the demonstrators. "No matter the circumstances, this is very tragic."

While Hancock and her fellow councilmembers have used the ongoing investigations of Lewis's death to avoid commenting and offering condolences, Morris told Westword that night she didn't see a problem with "listening to people" and showing remorse for what happened.

"I believe they should be heard," she said. "This was a very tragic event, and there's nothing wrong with listening to people and acknowledging that. I just can't comment on the case."

Hancock believes Morris "as an individual can do whatever she wants," but offering condolences is just not something she'll do as a councilmember.

"I think it would be inappropriate," she says.

But that doesn't mean she wouldn't do that as a citizen outside of her role in city council.

In fact, Hancock says one reason she has avoided speaking to the press is because she believes media reports have never portrayed the person she actually is in private. They've instead made her out to look like "someone that's a heartless ogre," which she swears is not the case.

"I personally feel like this is all terrible," Hancock says. "This is terrible all the way around. And if I had the opportunity to speak with [Lewis's mom], I would say that to her. I'd say, 'I'm sorry, this is terrible.' But in the form of the city council, we just shouldn't do it."