DA says Colorado has 'open and active investigations' into gang activity
Arapahoe County, Colorado, District Attorney John Kellner joins 'America's Newsroom' to explain the state's efforts to address and combat migrant gangs.
Members of law enforcement are furious after Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called migrant gang violence at Aurora apartment complexes "misinformation."
Arapahoe County, Colorado, District Attorney John Kellner spoke with Fox News's "America's Newsroom" Friday about the ongoing police response to the gangs of migrant criminals terrorizing apartments, which have been caught on camera.
"I can tell you we're aggressively prosecuting any of the cases that we see come across our desk," Kellner told Fox News. "We've got a multi-agency task force looking into these crimes right now. And whenever we see a gang try to infiltrate our community or get a foothold, we're going to prosecute them vigorously."
Alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang have overtaken an apartment building in Aurora, Colo., charging rent in exchange for "protection." (Edward Romero)
Kellner said there are multiple cases open for charges of home invasion, burglary and theft as police and law enforcement focus on rooting out the gangs before the problem gets worse.
Recent viral video shows several armed men in an Aurora, Colorado, apartment that some say has been taken over by members of Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan gang.
"I've heard criticism from some folks saying things like 'This is imaginary,'" Kellner continued. "I can tell you the people in this apartment complex, the people of aura, it's not imaginary.
"This is a real example of how cities across the country that are extremely far away from our border are dealing with the impacts of a failed border policy."
The district attorney pointed to previous initiatives combating members of the Mexican gang MS-13 that attempted to plant roots in the city.
The apartment building has been overrun by alleged gang members, according to one resident. (Council member Danielle Jurinsky)
"We indicted over a dozen members of that gang, prosecuted them for multiple murders, multiple shootings, violent crimes, and several of them are spending the next few decades looking back on their life choices in prison and regretting them," Kellner said. "And some of them are spending the rest of their lives in prison in Colorado."
Polis has largely dismissed claims that gangs represent a meaningful problem in Aurora, with a spokesperson calling such concerns "misinformation."
Shelby Wieman, spokeswoman for the governor's office, previously told Fox News Digital, "[Gov. Polis] hopes that the city council members in charge stop trashing their own city when they are supposed to keep it safe.
"We know violent crime in Aurora went down between 2022-2023. Fully expect the data will show further declines for 2024. And the recent misinformation campaign threatens actual criminal investigations and could hurt the climate for small businesses in Aurora," Wieman said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks at a news conference at the 2024 summer meeting of the National Governors Association in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
"I strongly disagree with the governor's comments about this. This isn't 'misinformation,'" Kellner told Fox News. "Right now there's an active investigation into a massive shootout that occurred outside one of these apartment complexes, and one man ended up dead. That's not misinformation. These are real problems."
According to reporting from the New York Post, more than 40,000 migrants have arrived in the Denver area since December 2022.
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"The situation is real, but it also needs to be put into context so that the reputation of an entire city of over 400,000 residents is not adversely impacted by what has occurred in several isolated apartment buildings owned by the same out-of-state slum lord," Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said in a previous statement to Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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