Former Colorado apartment resident says migrant takeover is ‘not an isolated occurrence’
Cindy Romero, former Aurora apartment complex resident, describes the terrifying moment the room across from her was seized by suspected Venezuelan gang members on ‘America Reports.’
Shocking doorbell footage showed a group of heavily-armed Venezuelan migrants trying to break into an apartment in Colorado. The suspected gang members have since overrun the Aurora, Colo. apartment complex, but one former resident says the takeover is "not an isolated occurrence."
"It is not by any means an isolated occurrence, unfortunately. I have months, almost a year and a half worth of footage, from six separate cameras," former Aurora apartment complex resident Cindy Romero said on "America Reports" Friday.
According to Romero, residents at the apartment complex were on "high alert" after spotting several individuals carrying weapons into an adjacent building early one morning.
"I had seen several individuals carrying assault weapons down to the next floor of the building adjoining mine. And I reported it to the police. So all day we were nervous and on high alert anyway, because they told us that they really couldn't do anything unless something happened. And we were just waiting all day for it to happen, and we knew it was coming," she said.
Romero added despite calling law enforcement early that morning, police were not able to respond "unless something happened."
"The reason was there is an ongoing investigation that they didn't want to interfere with. I assume there was surveillance of some sort going on. But they never did show up. And then that night when the shooting broke out, about 11:20 that evening, we again called 911 frantically, please come help us. We didn't get a response for an hour and a half," she said.
Several men armed with handguns, and one with a scoped rifle, were filmed bursting through the door of the apartment complex for unknown reasons.
The group appears to be Tren de Aragua, or TdA, a transnational gang based out of Venezuela. The gang, with reportedly 5,000 members, has a motto of "real until death," or "real hasta la muerte."
TdA is now linked with over 100 crimes across the nation, according to reporting from the New York Post.
"On this particular day, it was really bad," Romero said, revealing she and her husband were home when the gang stormed into the unit across the hall.
The building takeover ended with shots fired and bullets flying into vehicles.
"I have a bullet hole through my car. I only went in one side and went out the other. Hit about five things on the way through. My husband also has bullet holes in his car," she added.
Since then, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman confirmed at least two apartment buildings within the city limits have been overtaken by Venezuelan gangs. Some residents have also confirmed to Fox News Digital on Wednesday that members of Tren de Aragua have collected rent from residents in at least one overrun complex.
Romero has now relocated with the help of Aurora City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky.
"My first conversation with her, she said, ‘Do you still live there?’ And I said, ‘yes.’ And she said, 'I'm going to get you out of there,'" Romero said.
Jurinsky has been met with scrutiny for her position on the apartment complex invasion particularly from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
"According to police intelligence, this purported invasion is largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky's imagination," a spokesperson for Polis' office told the New York Post Thursday.
"You can't fake video and Polis wouldn't last five minutes on that property." - Cindy Romero
Romero hit back at the Democratic governor saying, "You can't fake video and Polis wouldn't last five minutes on that property."
"They don't want to admit that they're part of the problem," Romero claimed. "It's the administration who we count on to make the rules for us, to make the guidelines that we go by. I call 911. No help comes for me. No help. There's no mass amounts of police that show up to make sure that we're defended. Nobody showed up to help me."
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"I didn't have a bulletproof vest. I didn't have five officers showing up with me whenever there was a problem. We were on our own, and we were left to die."
In the aftermath of the terrifying incident, Romero shared that she is "so grateful every day that I got out."
Fox News' Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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