A 23-year-old man is dead and his neighbor is facing a second-degree murder charge after a shooting erupted outside an Aurora apartment complex at about 7:30 a.m. Yefferson Contreras-Colina suffered a gunshot wound and was rushed to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Edin Samuel Yanez-Orellana was arrested in connection with the shooting and now faces prosecution in the 17th Judicial District.
The shooting happened in the 1900 block of Blackhawk Street in north Aurora, according to Sentinel Colorado, which reported that Contreras-Colina was taken to the hospital after being shot and did not survive. Aurora police spokesperson Joe Moylan confirmed the man was rushed to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries. The Denver Post reported that officers responded to the parking lot shooting shortly before 7:30 a.m. that Wednesday, and that paramedics took the man to the hospital, where he died.
Yanez-Orellana was arrested near the 1600 block of South Sable Boulevard, not far from the shooting scene. The Denver Post reported he was arrested Wednesday afternoon, roughly eight hours after the fatal shooting, though at that point no charges had yet been filed. Investigators later moved forward with a second-degree murder charge against him in connection with Contreras-Colina's death.
Fugitive Unit and FBI Joined the Search
The arrest came together through a joint effort between Aurora police and federal investigators. Per the Sentinel Colorado report, the arrest was the culmination of work between the APD Fugitive Unit and the FBI Safe Streets program, which tracked Yanez-Orellana down near South Sable Boulevard hours after the shooting.
A separate report recounting details from the arrest affidavit offers a more granular picture of what investigators say happened that morning, though those details remain allegations as described in the filing. According to the account relayed by Yahoo, surveillance footage captured at 7:21 a.m. showed what appeared to be a man point what appeared to be a black firearm toward a figure before firing. The same report states that, according to the affidavit, it appeared the bullet skipped off the ground before striking the victim.
Roommate Allegedly Handed Him the Gun
The affidavit, as described in that report, also lays out a chain of events investigators attribute to Yanez-Orellana himself. He reportedly told investigators that a roommate handed him a handgun, followed him out to the parking lot and told him to shoot the person breaking into his car. Investigators later found a handgun in a bedroom at the Sable Boulevard address, along with clothing that matched what was seen in the surveillance video, the outlet reported. The affidavit account also states that Yanez-Orellana identified himself as the shooter shown in that footage.
Coverage of the case has diverged on one basic detail: Sentinel Colorado's reporting lists Yanez-Orellana as 30 years old, while the Yahoo report identifies him as 20. The discrepancy has not been independently resolved in available reporting.
A Shooting Amid an Otherwise Declining Crime Trend
The killing lands against a backdrop of falling crime citywide. Aurora's violent crime dropped 9% and property crime fell 11% between January 1 and June 30 of this year compared with the same stretch in 2025, according to CBS Colorado. The outlet reported that overall crime decreased about 10.5%, amounting to 665 fewer victims citywide, and that homicides were down 59% year over year during the same period.
Those numbers build on a longer trend: since Todd Chamberlain became police chief in 2024, department data cited by CBS Colorado shows violent crime has fallen 14%, property crime has dropped 27% and overall crime has decreased 25% during his tenure. At the same time, officers have stayed busy — the station reported that Aurora police responded to 142,089 calls in the first six months of this year, more than 12% higher than the same period in 2025, while arrests increased nearly 22% year over year.
