Colorado community leaders reflect after Aurora teen takeover damages businesses

On Sunday at Del Mar Park in Aurora, two events had spirits high. One was the THD Grit x HoopBus Denver 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The other was Quincy's Community Classic, a back-to-school basketball tournament and celebration.

"We had people dancing and singing, celebrating each other," said Olivia Omega, a spokesperson for Quincy's Community Classic. "Pulling together school supplies, backpacks, free haircuts, free food, anything that he can do to give back to the community and specifically to get students excited about returning to school.

It was the second year for Quincy's Community Classic. Last year it was held at Gateway High School, and it was supposed to be held at George Washington High School this year, but Denver Public Schools told the organizers they couldn't use the school after initially approving their request. So the organizers had to find a new place to hold the event. They decided to combine their event with the THD Grit x HoopBus Denver 3 on 3 basketball tournament.

"It was another basketball tournament. It's kind of perfect alignment," Omega said.

The event was going well until the social media influencers who were invited to make an appearance at the event arrived and the 500 or so teens who were there got overly excited leading to the event being shut down early.

That's when the teens who left the sanctioned event took over a local Burger King and King Soopers, causing damage. Aurora Police Department was called to control the chaos.

On Wednesday, DJ Fa'Dorah, one of the organizers of Quincy's Community Classic, spoke to Brother Jeff Fard on his podcast "30 Minutes with Brother Jeff" to explain what the event was and how things went badly afterward.

Brother Jeff Fard says he thinks Denver Public Schools let the kids down by revoking access to their facilities.

"You may have seen the young people and behaviors that are concerning. Nobody's condoning none of that at all. But that's what you got when you cancel this," Fard said on his podcast.

Quincy Shannon, a guest on the podcast, thinks the adults who shut down the event also bear some responsibility.

"When you shut an event down and you remove all of the structure, you remove all of the adults, you remove all of the people who are keeping the glue in the system together. Chaos," said Shannon.

In a statement DPS said, "Denver Public Schools prioritizes the safety, security, and well-being of our students, staff, and community members above all else. While we support community gatherings, our school facilities and safety staffing for events on school property are designed to accommodate specific, pre-approved crowd capacities. When the initial community use permit was approved for the event at George Washington High School, it was evaluated based on the organizer's original scope and attendance estimates of 300-350 people.As event planning progressed, revised projections, based on the attention the event was receiving on social media, indicated that expected attendance would significantly exceed the capacity of the facility and our safety personnel. When an event's anticipated scale surpasses safe limits, it creates significant safety, security, and traffic management challenges that we could not safely support.After careful review with district leaders and safety officials, the district determined that the event could not be hosted safely at George Washington High School and permission to use the facility was rescinded."

Organizers say, despite what happened, they will be back next year to help the youth in their community.

"We are still discussing what has happened. What can we do better? What we did really well. You know, we got the permits and the security, etc. So there will be talks about what to do moving forward for sure," Omega said.