Officer Who Killed Unarmed Suspect Has Yet To Tell Full Story
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - The police officer who shot and killed a career criminal who cut off his ankle tracking monitor has retained a lawyer and has not yet told his full story.
The officer's name has not been released. Authorities say last Friday the officer fired at and fatally wounded Naeschylus Vinzant at East 12th Avenue and Memphis Street.
"One gunshot and then they cuffed him and rolled him over and searched him and did CPR on him," said Beverly Barnhardt.
Barnhardt lives close to the intersection where the shooting happened. She told CBS4 she and her neighbors are still talking about the violent incident.
"I don't know what made them shoot him," Barnhardt said.
Police said in a news conference on Monday afternoon that Vinzant, 37, was unarmed at the time of the shooting. They said he was shot in the chest.
"We're still determining the actual circumstances that led up to that incident," Cmdr. Paul O'Keefe with Aurora police said in the news conference.
VIDEO: Watch Monday's News Conference
Vinzant, who was on parole, cut off his ankle tracking monitor four days before the shooting, according to police. On that day he allegedly became involved in a domestic violence incident, an assault, a robbery and a kidnapping.
Sometime after that the Colorado Department of Corrections asked Aurora police for assistance locating Vinzant and officers found him walking on North Laredo Street.
Police aren't saying if there was a confrontation before the shooting, which happened a few blocks away.
Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said he realized that after the shooting of an unarmed black man, the questions about the case may be just beginning.
"We're in a climate right now where our police actions are going to be questioned to a much greater degreee," he said.
Vinzant had a lengthy rap sheet that included assault, felony menacing and burglary.