An Aurora man is behind bars after police say he pulled a handgun and fired twice at an 11-year-old boy who was riding bicycles with two friends earlier this month. Jalen Davis, 33, was booked on charges including first-degree assault with a deadly weapon following an eight-day search that ended when a patrol officer recognized him near the scene of the shooting.
According to Sentinel Colorado, Aurora police officers responded around 11 p.m. on Oct. 12 to reports of a shooting near East First Avenue and Havana Street. The outlet reports that the boy told officers he and two friends were riding their bikes when they came across a man and a woman, an account relayed by Aurora police spokesperson Kristopher McDonald.
Per the victim's account, the woman asked the boys whether they wanted to get shot before the man displayed a handgun and fired two rounds at them. The same report notes that a nearby security camera captured the shooting, and investigators quickly distributed the footage in hopes of identifying and locating the pair.
Patrol Officer Spots Suspects More Than a Week Later
The break in the case came on Oct. 20, when an Aurora patrol officer working near Havana Street and East First Avenue spotted a man and woman matching the descriptions circulated in the department's bulletin, the Sentinel Colorado report states. The officer identified the man as Jalen Davis, bringing an end to the search that had stretched more than a week after the shooting.
Davis was booked into the Aurora Municipal Detention Center and now faces charges of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a weapon by a previous offender, and menacing, per the same account. He is being held at the Arapahoe County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.
Part of a String of Shootings Involving Young People in Aurora
The case adds to a run of shootings around Aurora this year that have involved children or teenagers either as victims or suspects. In September, a 14-year-old from Denver was charged with attempted murder after a shooting at a park in northwest Aurora, according to CBS Colorado. A young girl was also shot outside an Aurora apartment complex in an incident where police said a bullet only grazed her, leaving her with non-life-threatening injuries, as reported by KDVR.
Separately, no one was hurt in a shooting in the Rangeview High School parking lot, according to a report from Sentinel Colorado. And in May, a 40-year-old Aurora man was accused of fatally shooting an acquaintance following a dispute over a stolen bicycle, court records cited by The Denver Post show.
The Oct. 12 shooting also lands amid troubling statistics on gun violence and children. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment notes that firearms have been the leading cause of death for U.S. children and youth ages zero through 19 since 2020, and that firearm-related injuries and deaths among youth under 18 climbed 57% and 50%, respectively, between 2011 and 2021.
