Aurora police handcuffed a Black mother and three of her children after mistaking their SUV for a stolen motorcycle reportedly from another state.
What We Know:
- The incident occurred in the shopping center off Buckley Road in Aurora, Colorado, on Sunday. Brittney Gilliam, her 6-year-old daughter, 12-year-old sister and 14- and 17-year-old nieces were in their car when police officers drew weapons on them. The officers handcuffed them while they checked to see if the vehicle was stolen.
- In a video posted to Facebook, it shows the children and Gilliam on the ground in the parking lot surrounded by the police. The girls are seen in the video crying as civilians are seen questioning the police on why they drew their guns on them. Aurora police were already under the public eye after the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died of a heart attack after being detained by the police.
- Gilliam says she was taking the girls to get their nails done. She says they were looking to see whether the salon was open when police pulled up behind them with their guns drawn asking them to put their hands out of the window and get out of the car. The police wouldn’t tell them why they were being handcuffed. They did tell her that her car had been stolen since February and she offered to show them her registration and insurance.
- The police use a license plate scanner to gather information about the vehicle. Vanessa Wilson, Aurora Police Chief says she blames the license plate reader, but she could not speak on why the officers did not confirm the vehicle description. In statement she notes, “I totally understand that anger, and don’t want to diminish that anger, but I will say it wasn’t a profiling incident. It was a hit that came through the system, and they have a picture of the vehicle the officers saw.”
- Once the officers realized they had made a mistake, they uncuffed the woman and girls. A witness, Jennie Wurtz says, “I do not think a stolen vehicle is worth traumatizing the lives of children. On top of that, I was 20-feet away with a drawn gun. They didn’t even tell me to move, secure the scene. They didn’t do anything.” She filed a complaint with internal affairs demanding that police policy be changed.
- Gilliam says she was taking the girls to get their nails done. She says they were looking to see whether the salon was open when police pulled up behind them with their guns drawn asking them to put their hands out of the window and get out of the car. The police wouldn’t tell them why they were being handcuffed. They did tell her that her car had been stolen since February and she offered to show them her registration and insurance.
Aurora police issued an apology to the family on Monday. Police Chief Wilson said in an interview that she has spoken with the division chief about better training surrounding protocol on detaining children and training for different scenarios.
