"People say 'All Lives Matter,' but not everybody is dying every single day, they're not dying every single hour, they're not getting killed [by police]," said Kiawa Lewis, older brother of APD shooting victim Kilyn Lewis, during the meeting's public comment session.
"We're getting executed," he told councilmembers. "The pressure cooker is cooking."
Body camera footage released by Aurora PD last week 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.
Family members and community activists were in attendance at the Monday council meeting to demand that Dieck be fired and criminally charged for Kilyn's death.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, who sits on the council, took verbal beatings from Kiawa and numerous others who spoke about the shooting, as well as people in the crowd. He sparred back with them through gavel slams, smirks — after someone ordered his resignation — and an impromptu "recess" that he called after community members began shouting at a white woman who wanted to speak about an unrelated matter.
Another woman, who was also white, had gotten into a shouting match with the crowd minutes earlier after proclaiming during public comment that "all lives matter" and that a higher majority of white people get killed by police than Black.Powerful moment during @AuroraGov City Council meeting as @AuroraMayorMike gets up and walks out on family and community members protesting/shouting about the @AuroraPD shooting death of Kilyn Lewis…
— Chris Perez (@yankee_MSU) June 25, 2024
Coffman called the “recess” during public comment…
(via @denverwestword) pic.twitter.com/FvTxGLdRFZ
"Where they at?" a woman shouted from her seat.
Activist MiDian Holmes got up and pointed to outrage displayed at previous council meetings over the years about the shooting deaths of other Black Coloradans by APD, like Elijah McClain and Jor'Dell Richardson, during her turn to speak.
“Every time that a Black life is claimed, you sit up here with a posture that says this is just the way society goes,” she told councilmembers.
Before the meeting, Holmes and other leaders in the Black community gathered with Kilyn's family outside the Aurora municipal center to bring attention to Lewis's death and police brutality. They then filed inside the building one by one before sitting down with their arms in the air and cell phones raised in their hands to symbolize how Kilyn was shot by police.
"We want Aurora to actually start opening up their eyes," Kilyn's wife, Anndrec, told Westword before walking inside. "And of course, we want justice for Kilyn. There's no reason why my husband was shot. We are going to get justice one way or another."
Once inside, supporters of Kilyn and his family used the public comment session to specifically call on the city council to demand that Dieck resign as an officer and be charged with first-degree murder for the May 23 shooting.HAPPENING NOW: Family and community members sit in for @AuroraGov City Council meeting tonight, raising their arms and phones in the air in symbolic protest for @AuroraPD shooting victim Kilyn Lewis…
— Chris Perez (@yankee_MSU) June 25, 2024
Lewis had his arms raised & a phone in his hand when he was killed by police… pic.twitter.com/CEaJ083tZN
During Coffman's recess, the group proceeded to enter the council chamber well and repeatedly yelled out Kilyn's name while councilmembers scrambled to bring back Coffman and restore order. People from the crowd had originally been given an hour to speak during the public comment section, as required, but several councilmembers pushed for an extension of time, which was initially denied by Coffman in a motion to end the debate.
"They're here right now," said councilmember Alison Coombs after Coffman noted how the demonstrators would have a chance to return and speak in two weeks.
"You want to go home, but so did my nephew!" shouted one woman.
While Coffman's motion to end the public comment session initially passed, the council decided to re-vote and chose to give visitors another thirty minutes of speaking time. Coffman was the only person who voted twice to end the debate.
"Mike Coffman’s actions were aligned with the leadership that we have seen from him throughout his entire journey, so I am not surprised by his lack of humanity in the room tonight," Holmes told Westword after the meeting. "We saw and continue to see failed and corrupt leadership...and there is not one councilperson who has acted boldly to change the trajectory of the trauma that can’t be described as anything but inevitable for the Black community."
Former DPS board vice president Auon'tai Anderson, who now runs the new Center for Advancing Black Excellence in Education, informed councilmembers that Kilyn's supporters and family will be returning every two weeks until "justice" is carried out for him.
"We're not going away," Anderson said. "These fifty or seventy people, it's only going to grow. Just remember 2020. We took your lawns over. This is your warning: You could fire the officer who murdered Kilyn Lewis. You could hold him accountable. Or we will be back."
