A man fatally shot by Aurora police last week was a parole absconder with a violent history, but he was unarmed at the time, authorities said Monday.
The 37-year-old black man, identified by the coroner’s office as Naeschylus Vinzant, had removed a Department of Corrections ankle monitor on March 2, police Cmdr. Paul O’Keefe said at a news conference. The man was shot once in the chest at about 1:15 p.m. on Friday.
The officer who fired the shot has been placed on administrative leave, O’Keefe said. The officer has retained an attorney and is in the process of being interviewed by investigators.
The shooting happened on the 16200 block of East 12th Avenue roughly a block from Laredo Elementary School.
Police say Vinzant was on foot and that he was shot as officers tried to arrest him. Vinzant was wanted in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident, which included kidnapping, robbery, and assault, according to investigators.
A fugitive unit and SWAT members encountered him on Friday, O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe declined to talk about what exactly compelled the officer to fire a shot, citing the ongoing investigation. But he said no weapon was found.
Aurora’s new police chief, Nicholas Metz, said investigators want to be careful before releasing further details about the shooting.
“Police actions are going to be questioned to a much greater degree” in the aftermath of several high-profile fatal police shootings around the country, Metz said.
Aurora police want to be “transparent” and release “as much information as possible,” Metz said, but they are being methodical so as to “not jeopardize the case.”
The Jefferson County district attorney’s office will review the shooting.
The Arapahoe County DA’s office, which would have typically handled the case, has a “conflict of interest,” said Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler. He did not say what the conflict is.
Authorities have not discussed the circumstances of the alleged robbery and kidnapping, including any description of a possible victim or where that crime occurred.
Vinzant absconded from his parole on March 2, according to Adrienne Jacobson, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections.
He had been out on parole since November, she said. Jacobson declined to release further information on his DOC record.
Colorado Bureau of Investigation records show Vinzant had an extensive criminal history dating to 1994 that included arrests on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, attempted homicide, first-degree assault, being a previous offender in possession of a weapon and felony menacing.
Vinzant had been arrested in Colorado more than a dozen times since his criminal record began in the state 21 years ago. Those arrests were made by authorities in Denver, Aurora and Arapahoe counties.
CBI records show Vinzant went by the nickname “Tiny Loko” and 29 other aliases. The records say his latest arrest was last August in Aurora in a domestic violence case on suspicion of assault, theft and a parole violation.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
