Aurora Police Identify More Gunmen in Viral Video; no Venezuelan gang ties have been reported

AURORA | Aurora police say they have identified two more suspects seen in a video from an Aurora apartment that has gone viral and become central to a firestorm of misinformation and controversy over disputed Venezuelan gang activity in the city.

Neither the two new suspects — nor three others previously identified or arrested after being seen on video with guns at The Edge apartment complex — have been linked to Venezuelan gangs, or any gang, police said.

Investigators have identified Edilson Yoel Pena-Angulo, 25, and Danyeer Aramillo-Meneses, 23, in the video, and both are now wanted on arrest warrants. Both are charged with first-degree burglary and threatening with a firearm.

The two men were among four others who appeared Aug. 18 in a security camera video taken by tenants at the apartment complex at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street.

Police said the video was taken outside the apartment shortly before the fatal shooting. No charges have yet been filed in the shooting, although police say some or all of the men in the video are potential suspects.

The video became the subject of national uproar after Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky claimed on local and national TV shows, without evidence, that the apartment complex and others had been overrun by Venezuelan gang members belonging to the Tren de Aragua prison gang.

Police have repeatedly said some buildings and areas of Aurora are subject to a variety of gang activity, but they have disputed apartment owners’ claims that gangs have overtaken buildings and made the complexes impossible to manage. Jurinsky has amplified these unproven claims on Fox News and other media outlets.

Republicans and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump picked up on the chaos, saying the entire city of Aurora is being overrun by Venezuelan gang members, and even that they are now taking over all of Colorado, according to several Associated Press reports of Trump’s rallies.

The viral video shows six men, brandishing various firearms, coming up the stairs in the common area in the building. The men knock on the door of an apartment and go inside.

Five of the men in the video have now been identified. One of the men, Naudi Lopez-Fernandez, 21, is in custody, police said. Two other men seen in the video, Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25, and Niefred Jose Serpa-Acosta, 20 – both charged with first-degree burglary and criminal battery – are still at large.

Aurora Police Operation Safe Haven is working to determine the identities of all men and determine their involvement in any criminal activity.

Police said the surveillance footage was recorded seven minutes before 25-year-old Oswaldo Jose Dabion Araujo was killed by gunfire outside the same complex.

But most of the dispute focused on the men within the complex.

Officers found the shotgun seen in the video in an apartment next to the gun captured on camera.

Details released so far by police and Chief Todd Chamberlain refute claims made by Jurinsky and Mayor Mike Coffman in late August that the men are members of Tren de Aragua.

Although Coffman has since walked back these claims, the false story that TdA members overran entire apartment complexes in Aurora has gone so viral that Donald Trump is using it as an anti-immigration talking point in his presidential campaign.

Immigrant Aid Agency officials have repeatedly said that the demonization of the large immigrant population creates a real danger not just to the immigrants, but to all members of the Latino and Hispanic community, because of the way Trump and others have characterized them.

Chamberlain did not rule out the possibility that the suspects are TdA members during a September 20 press conference, noting that diplomatic relations between the US and Venezuela have soured — and Venezuelan law enforcement’s refusal to share information about criminals or gang members from that country – make it difficult for the police to prove ties to gangs.

“The one thing that I think is positive about most gang members is that they like to show off, and they’re very verbose, and I think over time you’ll see individuals start to identify or their own identity as ‘Yes, I am a TdA gang member,” or “Yes, I’m whatever gang they’re affiliated with.” But it will be a process. It won’t happen overnight. It will take time.”

Chamberlain noted: “We do not want to misidentify any individual as a gang member.”

He said APD is methodical in how it operates.

“You identify someone as a gang member who stays with them for the rest of their life. That’s something I’m not going to do with this agency,” he said. “We are not going to respond to this in a knee-jerk manner. We’re going to be methodical, we’re going to be precise and we’re going to be evidence-based.”

Chamberlain emphasized that the police investigation focuses on the suspects’ alleged criminal behavior, and not on their immigration status. He noted that many Venezuelans do not feel comfortable reporting crimes because they are undocumented.

“We want individuals who are being victimized, we want individuals who are being abused to come forward,” Chamberlain said. “We want to help and we will help.”

That said, he vowed to use “every tool” and opportunity to join efforts with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies “to ensure criminals are found and brought to justice.” Still, he noted that “we are not going to overburden the population based on their race or (ethnicity).”

Chamberlain debunked Jurinsky and Coffman’s much-discussed comments this summer suggesting that TdA and Venezuelan migrants more generally have taken over apartment complexes and overwhelmed police:

“We are absolutely not overwhelmed by this topic. We are in no way being overtaken by (Venezuelan) gangs, TDA or any other gang.”

The Edge at Lowry, along with two other Aurora apartment complexes – Aspen Grove and Whispering Pines – is owned and managed by the same company, CBZ Management, and has been the subject of multiple complaints regarding structural issues, flooding, broken appliances, mold and major and pest infestation. The city closed Aspen Grove due to building and safety code violations, forcing hundreds of mostly Venezuelan residents to find new homes.

Chamberlain signed a nuisance complaint last week for all three properties. In the meantime, city staff said the owner and management company were not cooperating in repairing the complexes

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