Community vigil held one year after police killing of Kory Dillard

Aurora, CO – On Friday, October 3, family, friends and members of the community gathered for a candlelight vigil to remember the life of Kory Dillard one year after his death. The vigil took place where Dillard was killed by officers Kevin Rodier and Ryan Shamblin of the Aurora Police Department.

Around 50 members of the community joined the Dillard family and the Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC) for an evening of remembrance as members of his family shared memories and spoke of their ongoing struggle in their fight for justice.

“The meeting with the DA didn’t go as planned,” said Anna Harris, Dillard’s life-partner, “But everybody being out here is proof that Kory’s life was something to celebrate.” Earlier that day, Dillard’s family and representatives of DACAC had a meeting with 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason, in which he disclosed that he would not be pursuing criminal charges on the police that murdered Dillard.

This decision, although not surprising, was a heavy blow, but the community remains undeterred. “We will continue to come out in order to stop these corrupt cops from killing our family members,” said Ava Dillard, Kory’s mother, “Not just for me, but for all the other cousins, mothers, aunts who also had dealings with these corrupt cops.”

Police-involved killings in the district, like that of Kory Dillard, are generally investigated by the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), a so-called independent group of investigative personnel supplied by neighboring police departments. Dillard’s case was investigated by the Westminster Police Department.

“The people who have been investigating this police department – it’s not the Aurora Police Department. It’s the Westminster Police Department. It’s the Commerce City Police Department, and Adams County Sheriff’s Department. So don’t worry, it’s not these police, it’s their colleagues one city over,” said Nels Pine of DACAC, “The same people they’d be investigating if they were on the CIRT team.”

Looking ahead, the Dillard family and DACAC will continue to file complaints and build a database of police officers and their crimes. Together, the goal will be to gain truly independent investigations into police crimes through community control of the police and the establishment of a democratically elected civilian police accountability council to replace CIRT.

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