So said the Republican mayor of Aurora, Colorado President Donald Trump’s rally in the city on Friday provided an opportunity “to show him and the nation” that Aurora “is not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs.”
Mayor Mike Coffman made the statement Tuesday after weeks of misleading claims by the former president that the city was a “war zone” overrun with members of a Venezuelan gang.
During the past month presidential debate To Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump pointed to Aurora as evidence that immigrants are “violently” taking over the city. “Look at Aurora in Colorado. They’re taking over the cities. They are taking over buildings,” Trump said.
Coffman said concerns about gang activity are “grossly exaggerated.” He said the “incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents.”
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said at a Sept. 20 news conference that the city “has not been overtaken by Venezuelan gangs in any way.”
At the center of the gang takeover claims is a viral video showing gunmen entering an apartment in Aurora on August 18. The incident led to the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old man, police said.
A city councilor shared the video on Facebook, claiming a gang had taken over “entire apartment complexes” in the city. Coffman shared a screenshot from the video and said the city is working to “request an emergency court order to vacate the apartment buildings where Venezuelan gang activity has occurred.”
Reuters/Isaiah J. Downing
However, after patrolling the complex, police said gang members had not taken over the building and residents were not paying rent to gangs. Coffman also visited the building and said tenants told him they had no safety concerns but were alarmed by the “piling up” of trash and a “rodent infestation.”
Coffman said tenants told him they had not paid rent because “there was no longer a property manager on site who had always collected rent.” Coffman said the first reports of a gang takeover came from the property management company CBZ Management. CBS News has reached out to CBZ management and has yet to hear back.
The mayor and councilman released a statement on September 11 to “clear the record” and say that gang members have not “taken over” the city.
Police said on September 20 that they have no information leading them to believe the men in the video are part of a gang.
Chamberlain said Aurora, like any other city, has crime and gang activity. The police department said it has created a special task force with local, state and federal officials to address gang activity.
Police said they have linked 10 people to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and eight of those people were arrested on September 11. But Chamberlain said there is “a lot of complexity” in identifying suspects as gang members, adding it has been “a struggle”.
“The one thing I want to make sure about in this whole discussion is that this is a focus on criminal behavior, this is not a focus on immigration status,” Chamberlain said.
