17-year-old girl arrested in Aurora in connection to fatal shooting of 14-year-old girl
Aurora police arrested a 17-year-old girl in connection to the July shooting that left one teen dead and two others injured.
The suspect, who resides in Denver, was arrested by Aurora police on Friday and was already in custody in another jurisdiction regarding an unrelated case, according to a press release from the Aurora Police Department.
The suspect was arrested on multiple counts, including: suspicion of first-degree murder, 10 counts of attempted first-degree murder, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, illegal discharge of a firearm, tampering with physical evidence and unlawful possession of a firearm by a minor, in connection to the shooting that occurred on July 6.
The shooting occurred around 9 p.m., in Highlands Hollow Park near the 1400 block of South Uravan Street.
Initial investigations revealed “numerous” minors were attending a birthday party at the park when a fight ensued and shots were fired, police said.
Upon arrival, police found two, 14-year-old girls and a 15-year-old girl, all residents of Aurora, injured. One of the girls, 14-year-old Kamiaya Keyera Cleveland, later died in the hospital.
Kamiaya was shot in the head while sitting in the backseat of a friend’s vehicle, her family told The Denver Gazette’s news partner, 9News.
The family described her as the kind of teenager who would “light up a room.” She never left the house without saying, “I love you.”
“For me, it’s her dances. I love her dances. She had a dance for everything,” Kayla Cleveland, Kamiaya’s aunt, told 9News. “That’s my memory etched on my heart.”
No other suspects are believed to be a part of the case, police said, though investigations are still ongoing.
The suspect’s information will not be released at this time due to her being a minor.
The shooting came just three days before a 14-year-old boy, Steven Joseph Marquez, shot and killed 49-year-old William Todd Kidd outside of a popular bar and taco restaurant — located at 29th Street and Larimer Street in RiNo — in a separate incident on July 10.
Subsequently, on Tuesday, a juvenile was arrested in connection to the shooting of three people outside along the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver, marking the third juvenile shooting in the past month.
9News contributed to this report