AURORA — Grand jurors in Arapahoe County have declined to indict an Aurora police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed, 37-year-old black man in March, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The decision not to charge Officer Paul Jerothe, a tactical paramedic commended for his actions during the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, ends months of speculation in a case that drew parallels to other police shootings of black men around the country.
Naeschylus Carter Vinzant was a wanted parole absconder also suspected in a domestic violence and robbery case when Jerothe, who is white, and other officers tried to arrest him.
Authorities had been warned Vinzant was a violent criminal with a history of threatening to shoot police.
Grand jurors were convened in June to review the case and heard testimony that Jerothe feared for his life and the lives of his colleagues when he fired one shot, hitting Vinzant in the chest.
Lawyers for Vinzant’s family released a statement saying he did not deserve to die the way he did and that they will continue to seek justice through other legal outlets.
“Naeschylus is but one person on an ever-growing list of unarmed victims of police-related killings whose families have been let down by the grand jury process,” the statement said.
Vinzant’s family asked that any demonstrations in response to the news be peaceful and productive.
“I thought it would be a fair process,” Vinzant’s mother, Pauletter Zinnerman, told Denver7. “I was hoping, my family was hoping and I have to explain to them that’s not going to happen.”
“Our son was unarmed, he was shot,” father Herman Floyd told the television station. “And at that point, my wife and myself, we’re disappointed.”
Authorities on Wednesday released 42 pages of documents, which included the grand jury’s findings and an order from District Judge Carlos Samour Jr., who also urged the public not to respond to the news with violence.
“Some may be tempted to have a knee-jerk reaction misguidedly premised in whole or in part on the outcome of other grand jury investigations,” Samour wrote, asking people to read the jurors’ report.
Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said he had not thoroughly reviewed the jury’s findings and would not comment on its specifics. He called the shooting “an incredibly tragic situation for everyone involved” and stressed that his department is taking the situation seriously.
Police say they will conduct an internal investigation, a process that could take several weeks. Metz said the department is revising its use-of-force policies.
Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said he recognized the decision does not bring closure to everyone involved.
“This is a strong community,” Hogan said in a statement. “Together we will move forward, continuing to respect all residents and the diverse needs of this community.”
Jefferson County District Attorney Peter Weir, who oversaw the shooting investigation, said his office decided a grand jury would be most suited to weigh charges because of the breadth of evidence.
“I’m comfortable with the grand jury’s decision,” he told reporters. “Thank God we have grand jurors.”
On the afternoon of March 6, Vinzant was killed on an Aurora street roughly a block from Laredo Elementary School.
Vinzant was wanted for absconding from his parole March 2 after authorities say he cut off an ankle monitor following a domestic assault on his wife that left her bloodied.
Aurora police supervisors were notified of the assault and that Vinzant had violated parole in a “high priority” alert warning them of his criminal history, the grand jury’s report said.
SWAT officers and members of a fugitive unit tasked with arresting Vinzant were told he had violent tendencies, was a known drug user and had threatened to shoot police officers previously, according to the report.
When officers moved in to apprehend Vinzant, he began to run with his right hand in his right pocket, appearing to hide something, the report says.
Vinzant then came face to face with Jerothe, according to the report, and began removing his hand from his pocket. Jerothe fired one shot with his rifle, striking Vinzant in the chest, penetrating his lung and severing his spinal cord. No other officers fired their weapons.
The grand jury found that despite some witness accounts, Vinzant never tried to surrender.
Jerothe testified that warnings about Vinzant’s criminal history were “playing in his mind” when the shooting happened and that he feared for his life.
“Officer Jerothe had been absolutely convinced he was about to be shot and killed and other officers placed in jeopardy of being shot unless he acted first,” the report said.
Jerothe told the grand jury he “kind of locked up” and became emotionally upset after realizing Vinzant was unarmed.
Prosecutors said one reason they convened a grand jury was because of conflicting reports about where Vinzant’s hands were at the time and Jerothe’s statements in the moments after the shooting.
Weir said another officer at the scene recalled Jerothe initially saying something to the effect that his gun had gone off accidentally. The statement was not corroborated by other witnesses, Weir said, and there were doubts about its accuracy.
Jerothe told investigators that he was so distraught after the shooting that he didn’t know what he said at the scene.
“There are different versions of what happened,” Weir said. “All those versions were presented to the grand jury.”
Jerothe has worked for the Aurora Police Department since 2006 and had participated in hundreds of tactical arrests, but never one in which an officer fired a weapon.
The Vinzant shooting stirred protests in Aurora in its immediate aftermath, not only because it was a case of a white officer killing an unarmed black man but also because of the way the investigation was handled. It was almost a week before Jerothe was interviewed formally about what happened.
Vinzant is one of five people shot and killed by Aurora police officers this year, the department said.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or @JesseAPaul
The grand jury:
A 12-person Arapahoe County grand jury first convened in June to hear the cases and interviewed 24 witnesses over 11 sessions. At least nine of those jurors agreed no charges should be filed against Officer Paul Jerothe. Prosecutors from Jefferson County, which handled the case, say they presented their investigation without any intention of influencing jurors’ decision and with the sole purpose of letting the community decide justice.
