Police in Aurora share body camera footage, surveillance video after fatal shooting of teen at gas station

Earlier this month, a 17-year-old in Aurora called 911 and police say he threatened to shoot up a gas station and then open fire on officers. The Aurora Police Department on Friday shared their officers' body camera footage of that incident that led to the teenager's death. They also released surveillance video.

The situation was unusual in that the suspect contacted emergency operators about himself.

"He threatened to commit mass violence," Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said in a news conference on Friday. "He said he had the intent, and he said what he was going to do specifically."

On the night of Sept. 18, the teen used the business phone inside the gas station, located at South Havana Street and Alameda Avenue, to call 911 and say he had a loaded gun.

"Where's the gun right now," the 911 emergency operator asked in an audio release from the police department.

"In my left pocket," the teen said.

He told the operator the weapon was loaded.

"What type of gun did you have again, was that a .45?" the operator asked.

"A 9mm," the teen replied.

Officers later found out that the teen didn't have a gun at all that night.

The APD body cam footage shows officers approaching the teen with their guns drawn. He ignored commands to show his hands and advanced towards the officers, who backed up and at times hid behind the walls of the gas station. They fired rubber bullets from a less-lethal launcher. The teen charged, still refusing to show his hands. That's when an officer fired his weapon.

Chamberlain said in a nearly hour-long news conference on Friday that police acted on the information they had.

"Those officers were responding to an active shooter call. They were not responding to somebody in mental health crisis," the chief said.

It's still not clear if the teen, whose name has not been released, was going through a mental health crisis. Two crisis response units were still dispatched.

"Every member of our organization goes through a suicide-by-copy training. They go through a communication training," Chamberlain said.

Investigators are still working to learn more about the teenager's history. He had been living away from his family in a halfway house.

"This is a tragedy," the chief said.