Some breaking news that we've
been following this morning.
A man is facing at least 12
counts as attempted murder,
several other charges after firing
a gun multiple times overnight.
This is a look at the scene where it all
came to an end very early this morning.
Police say just before midnight,
Eugene Robertson went to a
711 on South Airport Blvd.
In Aurora, fired shots,
then shot at a customer in the parking lot.
They say he also threatened someone
with a gun at the Burger King across
the street when officers arrived.
Just after midnight,
he shot through a front door of an
apartment building that was near
East Ohio Ave in E Alameda Parkway.
While police were then searching for him,
they say another officer fired a gun.
No one was hurt in any of this,
amazingly,
and Robertson was taken into custody.
We have learned a 39 year old man
from Nicaragua died while in custody
at an ice detention center in Aurora.
9 news reporter Jordan Chavez
joins us in The Newsroom.
And Jordan,
the federal agency says that he
died at a hospital last week,
but they're not releasing many details.
Yeah, Gary. And now ICE is facing
even more questions about specifically
how 39 year old Melvin Coleto
Mendoza ended up in that hospital
and what treatment he received.
We are asking questions, of course.
So is the Rocky Mountain immigrant advocacy.
That work, they provide legal counsel
and services to people in ICE custody.
Calera Mendoza wasn't one of their clients,
but Laura Lund says she wants to
advocate for him and a press release.
Ice wrote about its commitment to the quote,
health and welfare of all those in
custody and the medical care they provide.
But none of the information I
shared was about the care Coleto
Mendoza specifically received.
Very little of the statement
actually focused on Melvin.
Instead, it focused on the
agency and the resources that
they allocate nationwide.
But they don't talk about
what resources are allocated
toward him and his experience.
I says an autopsy is still pending to
determine an official cause of death.
The agency is legally required,
though to a required, excuse me,
to make all reports regarding deaths while
in custody public within three months.
Alright, thank you for the update.
We'll see what happens on that
this morning. Deputies in Adams County
are searching for people they say
were involved in a deadly shooting
at a house party over the weekend.
A senior at North High School
died in the shooting.
Seven others were hurt and two
are still in critical condition.
Deputies say they're looking for an
early 2000s model dark blue Chevy Tahoe.
They aren't sure how many
suspects were inside.
It happened at a house on Dakin St
investigators still aren't sharing
many details about what happened,
but if you know anything you're asked to
call the Adams County Sheriff's Office.
Well, today, Denver's new police
chief is going to be sworn in.
Mayor Michael Hancock nominated Ron
Thomas six weeks ago after now former
Chief Paul Pazin abruptly retired.
Yesterday, City Council officially
approved that nomination.
Thomas has been with the
department for 33 years,
most recently as Chief of Patrol.
Thomas says some of his goals
are to create a way to report
incidents online and add more
officers to respond to calls.
Response
times are up, I understand.
That call hold times are up.
At the same time,
I understand that our staffing is down.
I understand that that Community
Trust is also at a low point.
And I'm committed to fixing those things.
We need to fix those things and and
those things are going to be addressed.
I can promise you that
he does have a big list.
Thomas will be formally sworn in
as Chief today at 11:31 in Aurora.
City leaders say they're
planning to hire new employees.
Of the crisis response team,
and they're going to work with CU
health to try and make that happen.
The program is supposed to send a
police officer and a mental health
clinician to certain 911 calls,
but it hasn't had any full-time
clinicians for nearly two months.
9 news reporter Mark Salinger
shows us how Aurora is changing
how it operates the program.
We don't know how many calls came into
Aurora 911 over the last month and 1/2
that involved a mental health crisis.
We do know there were no full-time
clinicians, part of Aurora's crisis
response team, working to respond.
If we don't have clinicians, we're
not running a Co responder program
now. We're Aurora is taking steps
to fix the problem. For years now,
the city has partnered with Aurora
Mental Health Center to provide
clinicians for the Co responder program.
That will end now after an audit.
Published by the city found a long list
of problems with the way the program is
run. We've had difficulty getting.
Fully staffed on the clinician
side over the years, as we know,
it's a very tough market.
Jason Batcheller is the deputy
city manager in Aurora.
He told City Council members
Aurora will now work with UC
health to find clinicians.
We really want that Co
responder model fully staffed.
The audit found that Aurora lacks
formal procedures for handling
calls for persons in crisis.
Aurora 911 does not have protocols
to determine whether a mental
health crisis is occurring,
and the crisis response team
lacks policies and procedures.
For its operations, ultimately,
the audit recommended the city
changed the way it finds clinicians.
We're in the final stages
of contracting with UCLA.
We're hoping to be under
contract by November,
program manager Courtney
Tassin told council members.
Pay was so low they couldn't retain staff.
They're hoping higher pay
will help and want to hire
clinicians as soon as possible,
citing the immediate need with
the UC health proposal.
Their salary was very competitive.
So just how many calls?
As the crisis response team not
responding to because of a lack of staff,
the audit found in one random
week more than 115 calls involved
a person in crisis which the
team could have responded to.
The audit found that the city
itself does not keep track of how
many mental health calls come in,
so it's really hard to know how many
total mental health calls there are.
Since there are no full-time clinicians.
The program manager has been
responding to calls when she can,
which is about once a week.