Hundreds marched behind the coffin of a 14-year-old boy in the rain Friday night demanding answers about the teen’s fatal shooting by an Aurora police officer.
Jor’Dell Richardson’s family demanded the release of all videos showing the June 1 shooting, as well as the resignation of interim Chief Art Acevedo. An Aurora police officer shot and killed the teen after Jor’Dell fled from police investigating suspicious activity. An officer shot Jor’Dell in the stomach after tackling him to the ground and seeing a weapon, which police later revealed was a bullet gun mimicking a handgun.
“Whatever happened that day shouldn’t have been a death sentence,” Jor’Dell’s mother, Laurie Littlejohn, said at a public memorial for the teen held Friday outside the Aurora Municipal Center.
Jor’Dell’s family and their attorney criticized Acevedo for failing to reveal that the teen’s weapon was a bullet gun for over a week. Acevedo told reporters on June 1 that Jor’Dell had a “semi-automatic firearm pistol” and on June 9 he said the weapon was actually a bullet gun mimicking a handgun. said Acevedo Sentinel Colorado the delay in correcting the information was due to miscommunication and that he was told on June 8 that it was a bullet gun.
Jor’Dell’s family also criticized the department for failing to mention in the information released on the day of the shooting that Jor’Dell surrendered to police after being tackled and that there is no evidence on any footage of the body camera that Richardson touched the replica pellet gun. before he was shot.
“Chief Acevedo, I know you were trying to be transparent,” said Rev. Thomas Mayes, president of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance and member of the council’s advisory committee supervising the implementation of a court-ordered consent decree to reform the department. “You failed. You failed Jor’Dell, you failed this family, you failed the community.”
The teen’s family called on Acevedo Friday to release all video footage of the shooting, including the footage from a surveillance camera in the alley where Jor’Dell was killed.
Acevedo released two body camera videos at a June 9 press conference after showing the family the footage three days earlier. State law requires police departments to wait 72 hours between showing videos to families of people killed by police and releasing the footage publicly.
Acevedo called Richardson’s death a tragedy during the June 9 press conference. He said there are other body cam videos from the shooting, but he had not seen any footage that more clearly showed Jor’Dell and the two officers who tackled him in the moments before the officer fired.
The 18th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the officer’s decision to shoot Jor’Dell, and Acevedo declined to answer some questions at the press conference due to the ongoing investigation.
Jor’Dell’s family described the teen as a gregarious prankster who was passionate about everything he pursued. He had recently started playing basketball and earned a spot on the All-Star Team for Aurora Public Schools. He graduated from Aurora West College Preparatory Academy weeks before he was killed and was scheduled to start high school in the fall. Instead, his mother decides what to do with his belongings.
“I have to live with an empty room,” Littlejohn said.
Aurora police officer Roch Gruszeczka shot and killed Richardson after the teen fled from police investigating suspicious activity at a comic book store.
Gruszeczka and Officer James Snapp arrived after a sergeant radioed for help, saying, “Five dudes, black youths, all masked, came out of the alley and started running toward the comic book store.” The sergeant said it looked like the group was scouting businesses in the comic book store.
![Lawyer Siddhartha Rathod speaks at a memorial for 14-year-old Jor'Dell Richardson at the Aurora Municipal Center on Friday, June 16, 2023. The memorial took place two weeks after Aurora police officer Roch Gruszeczka shot and killed Jor'Dell in June. 1. In front of the municipal center, relatives held praises for the teen. After the eulogies, a processional march took place around the city carrying Jor'Dell's coffin. (Photo by Grace Smith/JS)](https://i0.wp.com/www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/TDP-L-jordell-memorial-061623-gs_25.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
When Gruszeczka arrived at the shopping area, he said: “They just shoplifted there. I’m going to light them.” He and Snapp then chased Jor’Dell into an alley and tackled him to the ground, where the teen said, “Please stop, you got me.”
During a fight on the ground, Gruszeczka saw what he thought was a gun pointed at Jor’Dell and shot him once in the abdomen, police said.
After the shooting, detectives determined that at least one of the teens threatened a store clerk with a gun and took several vape canisters, according to police. Acevedo said that Jor’Dell was the teenager who threatened the clerk.
The Memorial Friday was held at the same place where Elijah McClain’s family gathered four years ago to demand answers about his death. McClain, 23, died in police custody after being forcibly restrained for no probable reason and injected with the sedative ketamine.
Siddhartha Rathod, the lawyer representing McClain’s mother and now representing Jor’Dell’s family, said in both cases and in others that Aurora police have repeatedly misled the public with “half-truths.”
“We have a right to have a police station that we can trust,” he said.
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