Aurora was handed a lawsuit on Tuesday following the fatal police shooting of Rashaud Johnson, the second lawsuit this year accusing Aurora Police Department officers of unlawfully using excessive force.

Johnson’s family said he was unarmed and experiencing a mental health crisis, while the police said he rushed an officer and tried to grab his gun.   

The department is separately fighting a lawsuit in connection with the fatal shooting of Kilyn Lewis on May 23, 2024. That lawsuit and the protests are cited as reasons why the Aurora City Council moved all meetings to video conference and temporarily shut down public comment at those meetings.

Attorneys from Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, who also represent the Lewis family, held a press conference on Tuesday morning to announce the new lawsuit in the Johnson case. 

“This is hard, my only child,” Taushica Carter, Johnson’s mother, said through tears. “For 32 years, I had the pleasure of loving him and being loved back.”

The lawsuit identified the City of Aurora and Ofc. Brandon Mills as plaintiffs and claimed the latter unlawfully used excessive force against Johnson. It also claimed that Johnson had a right to be kept reasonably safe and get adequate medical care after he was shot. Attorneys alleged that did not happen.

The shooting happened on May 12, when Mills responded to a suspicious person call, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said at a news conference after the shooting.

The incident started around 3 p.m., when Aurora 911 got a call about a  person trespassing at an offsite airport parking lot, The Parking Spot, in the 19900 block of east 56th Avenue.

Johnson lived about a half mile from the parking lot, his parents said at Tuesday’s press conference. His grandmother, who he visited frequently, also lives nearby, they said.

Employees at the lot called 911 multiple times between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., saying Johnson entered their building, drank water, then left and started wandering around the lot trying to open empty car doors. 

Neil Sandhu, the attorney for the family, made several claims: That, despite multiple 911 calls for help and “visible signs” that Johnson was having a mental health crisis, the police did not send an officer until hours after the first call, sent only one officer, did not send any mental health professionals like they should have, and the officer continued to hold him at gunpoint and did not apply pressure to the wound until a second responding officer from Denver told him he should.

From the first 911 call and in every call afterward, callers made it clear that Johnson did not have any weapons on him, Sandhu added.

Mills responded at 5:15 p.m. and tried to talk to Johnson, who was “walking aimlessly” and “not listening to verbal requests,” Chamberlain said at the earlier press conference.

Mills tried to de-escalate the situation verbally, telling Johnson he wasn’t in trouble and trying to understand what was happening. Johnson walked toward Mills, who hit Johnson with his baton and stepped back to use a taser, Chamberlain said.

In the body camera footage, Johnson is seen running toward Mills and pushing him to the ground. Chamberlain said Johnson tried to get Mills’ gun out of his belt and succeeded in getting the magazine from him.

The body camera footage shows Mills eventually standing up and backing away from Johnson, pulling his gun out and pointing it as Johnson stops and looks at the ground, then walks slowly toward Mills, as the officer starts yelling at him to get on the ground.

Mills shot him twice in the chest at about 5:30 p.m. He was taken to the hospital for treatment and died shortly after.

In the press conference following the incident, Chamberlain emphasized the lack of other support services for mental health issues and substance abuse, calling into question the effectiveness of the system in which police usually respond to situations like this one.

“Why aren’t there systems in place other than law enforcement to address these issues?” Chamberlain asked. “Why is law enforcement the de facto response? There are no facilities right now to support those individuals, if that’s what this was.”

Johnson’s two previous interactions with the Colorado criminal justice system were a minor marijuana consumption charge and a reckless driving charge, both of which occurred more than a decade ago, according to Sandhu, the family attorney. His autopsy did not show any illegal drugs in his system, the attorney added.

Carter, Johnson’s mom, said she has a “hard time knowing” that someone sworn to public service “took an oath and took my baby’s life.”

“There’s no words I can say in the pain I feel to have my baby gone and not here with me,” said Carter, a veteran. “And someone who thought they were God basically took my baby’s life.”

Christopher Johnson, Johnson’s father, described the texts he’d exchange with his son, saying they shared a sense of humor and would send each other comedy videos.

Johnson, a comedian, would tell his father when his comedy shows were, ask what kind of cologne he should wear and share “nuggets of life,” Johnson’s father said.

He wasn’t a troublemaker, his father added, and he was loved by his community and family. 

Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte said it will be “several weeks, if not months” before the 17th Judicial District’s Critical Incident Response Team’s independent investigation into the shooting is completed. 

“Like any critical incident, there are important facts that will be revealed by these investigations that are not depicted in a single body camera video,” Schulte said. “Now that this lawsuit has been filed, my office will defend the city and the officer in this case.”

Christopher Hopper, the 17th Judicial District spokesperson, said the CIRT investigation is ongoing. The APD conducts internal investigations into officer-involved shootings, as well.

The CIRT investigation, and an APD internal investigation, cleared SWAT officer Michael Dieck in the May 23, 2024, shooting death of 37-year-old Lewis. Officers were attempting to arrest him on an attempted murder warrant. A video showed he appeared to be reaching for his pocket. He had a cellphone, not a gun.