Trump seizes on one block of a Colorado city to warn of a migrant crime threat, even as crime dips

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — The city of Aurora is roughly the size of pre-evacuation Tampa, Florida. With 400,000 people spread over 164 square miles, it has swank subdivisions, working-class neighborhoods and the high-end resort where Donald Trump will hold a rally Friday to highlight a city turned into “a war zone” by immigrants, in the words of his campaign.

The reality is much different from the one Trump has been portraying to his rally attendees. As with many other American cities, Aurora’s crime rate is actually declining.

The matter that brought the Denver suburb to Trump’s attention occurred in August in a single block of the city, in an apartment complex housing Venezuelan migrants.

It was then that video surfaced of heavily armed men going door to door in the complex, where the New York-based owners claimed a Venezuelan gang was extorting rent from tenants. Someone was shot and killed outside the complex around the time the video was recorded, police said.

Now, two months later, authorities say they have identified six suspects and arrested one. Tenants of the building say police check in regularly and that the area is safe.

“They left, and it’s been nice and calm,” said Edward Ramirez, 38, of the gunmen as he climbed into his car this week. He was one of more than a dozen of tenants who said the threat has ebbed. “It’s quiet, we can work, it’s normal.”

Aurora’s crime rate has followed a downward trend seen across the country, a decline that has overlapped with the influx of Venezuelans fleeing their country who have funneled into Colorado and other cities nationwide.

Multiple studies show immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. But Aurora also is an example of how Trump has been able to use real but isolated episodes of migrant violence to tar an entire population. He uses those examples to paint a picture of a country in chaos due to what he regularly calls an immigrant “invasion.”

“Do you see what they’re doing in Colorado? They’re taking over,” Trump, who often warns of “migrant crime,” said of Venezuelan gang members during a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. “They’re taking over real estate. They become real estate developers from Venezuela. They have equipment that our military doesn’t have.”

Trump’s sweeping claims about Aurora — his campaign’s announcement of the rally calls the city “a war zone,” linking to a story in the conservative New York Post that uses those words — have drawn sharp rebukes from local residents.

“Former President Trump’s visit to Aurora is an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora is a considerably safe city — not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs,” Mayor Mike Coffman, who was a sometimes Trump critic when he served as a Republican congressman, said in a statement. “The reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated.”

Aurora did see a “slight” uptick in crime that coincided with the arrival of large numbers of Venezuelans in the city during September 2023, Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told a press conference last month. But that increase has since ebbed. According to Aurora police data, there were 12% fewer major crimes in the city — ranging from homicide to vehicle theft — last month than in September 2023.

Asked how it could justify its sweeping claims about safety as crime drops in Aurora, the Trump campaign responded with a statement from the Republican National Committee: “The violent gang invasion of Aurora, Colorado, is just one example of how every state is a border state,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “Aurora apartment complexes are war zones, fentanyl is flooding communities, and migrant criminals are raping and murdering victims.”

The migrants began arriving in Denver at the end of 2022, which Colorado crime statistics show was the peak of a steady increase in crime in the state since the pandemic. In 2023, when Venezuelans became a staple on some Denver streetcorners selling flowers or offering quick car windshield washes, frustrating many Colorado voters, crime dropped statewide.

Aurora’s city council passed a resolution opposing resettlement of the migrants in their city, but nonprofits found willing landlords to take some, anyway. Others moved independently, drawn by cheaper rents.

Trump has claimed Venezuela and other countries are emptying their prisons, mental institutions and “insane asylums” to send dangerous people to the U.S. and has contended that Venezuela’s notoriously violent capital of Caracas is safer than many U.S. cities. The latter claim drew disbelief from Venezuelan migrants who say they feel safe in Aurora.

“It’s a thousand times better than Venezuela here,” said Dexe Medina, 44, as she left the Aurora apartment complex.

The neighborhood where many Venezuelans settled has long been one of Aurora’s rougher stretches, close to Colfax Boulevard, a sometimes run-down drag that bills itself as the nation’s longest street and runs from Aurora west through neighboring Denver and into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Longtime residents say they’ve heard the occasional gunshot for years, but things seem relatively calm now.

“Honestly, this general area has improved,” said Diego Garcia, 18, a high school senior who lives a block away from the complex where the video was filmed. “It used to be a lot worse.”

Though residents feel safer, they acknowledge that the days in August when the armed men roamed the neighborhood were terrifying.

Dustin Zvonek, an Aurora City councilman, stressed that Aurora remains a safe city with falling crime, but warned against minimizing specific problems like those in the apartment complexes. He noted that residents of the buildings and its immediate neighbors haven’t been assuaged when told crime is dropping overall.

“It’s always not a big deal,” Zvonek said, “until it happens to you.”

FILE - Juan Carlos Jimenez, center left, and Geraldine Massa speak during a rally by the East Colfax Community Collective to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - Juan Carlos Jimenez speaks during a rally by the East Colfax Community Collective to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

A worker wheels a refrigerator into a used appliance store along East Colfax at Dallas Street, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in the east Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

A lone pedestrian crosses East Colfax Avenue at the intersection with Dayton Street, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in the east Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

FILE - Juan Carlos Jimenez, left, listens as Geraldine Massa speaks during a rally staged by the East Colfax Community Collective to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America, Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - A boy guides his bicycle past apartment buildings as a rally organized by the East Colfax Community Collective is held in the courtyard to address chronic problems in the apartments occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - Moises Didenot speaks during a rally by the East Colfax Community Collective to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America, Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - A person holds up a placard during a rally by the East Colfax Community Collective to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America, Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Friday called on members of the public to send any video or other evidence in the fatal shooting of Renee Good directly to her office, challenging the Trump administration's decision to leave the investigation solely to the FBI.

Moriarty said that although her office has collaborated effectively with the FBI in past cases, she is concerned by the Trump administration's decision to bar state and local agencies from playing any role in the investigation into Wednesday's killing of Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.

She also said that despite the Trump administration’s insistence that the officer who shot Good has complete legal immunity, that isn’t the case.

“We do have jurisdiction to make this decision with what happened in this case,” she said at a news conference. “It does not matter that it was a federal law enforcement agent.”

Moriarty said her office would post a link for the public to submit footage of the shooting, even though she acknowledged that she wasn't sure what legal outcome submissions might produce.

The prosecutor's announcement came on a third day of Minneapolis protests over Good's killing and a day after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon.

Good's wife, Becca Good, released a statement to Minnesota Public Radio on Friday saying, “kindness radiated out of her.”

"On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns," Becca Good said.

“I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him,” she wrote. “That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.”

The reaction to the Good's shooting was immediate in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of protesters converging on the shooting scene and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.

On Thursday night, hundreds marched in freezing rain down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now!” and holding signs saying, “Killer ice off our streets." And on Friday, protesters were out again demonstrating outside of a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the immigration crackdown that began Tuesday in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Authorities erected barricades outside the facility Friday.

City workers, meanwhile, removed makeshift barricades made of old Christmas trees and other debris that had been blocking the streets near the scene of Good's shooting. Officials said they would leave up a shrine to the 37-year-old mother of three.

The Portland shootings happened outside a hospital Thursday afternoon. Federal immigration officers shot and wounded a man and woman, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Venezuela nationals Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who were inside a vehicle, and their conditions weren't immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed. Hundreds protested Thursday night at a local ICE building. Early Friday, Portland police reported that officers had arrested several protesters after asking the to get out of a street to allow traffic to flow.

Just as it did following Good's shooting, DHS defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying it occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It wasn't immediately clear if the shootings were captured on video, as Good's was.

The Minneapolis shooting happened on the second day of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, which Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part and Noem said they have made more than 1,500 arrests.

The government is also shifting immigration officers to Minneapolis from sweeps in Louisiana, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. This represents a pivot, as the Louisiana crackdown that began in December had been expected to last into February.

Good's death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests happening in other places, including Texas, California, Detroit and Missouri.

In Washington, D.C., on Thursday, a woman held a sign that said, “Stop Trump’s Gestapo,” as hundreds of people marched to the White House. Protesters in Pflugerville, Texas, north of Austin, banged on the walls of an ICE facility. And a man in Los Angeles burned an American flag in front of federal detention center.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.

But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying videos show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”

Several bystanders captured footage of Good's killing, which happened in a neighborhood south of downtown.

The recordings show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.

It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with agents earlier. After the shooting, the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.

The federal agent who fatally shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and ICE, according to records obtained by AP.

Noem has not publicly named him, but a Homeland Security spokesperson said her description of his injuries last summer refers to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, in which court documents identify him as Jonathan Ross.

Ross got his arm stuck in the window of a vehicle whose driver was fleeing arrest on an immigration violation. Ross was dragged and fired his Taser. A jury found the driver guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not successful.

Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski and Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis; Ed White in Detroit; Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas; Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Jim Mustian and Safiyah Riddle in New York; Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

Protesters confront law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters' shadows are cast on the street near law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters confront law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

An American flag burns outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Two protesters are lit by a police light as they walk outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Protesters are arrested by federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters sit on a barrier that is being assembled outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters stand off against law enforcement outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Protesters chant and march during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer the day before, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, after she was fatally shot by an ICE officer the day before. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino arrives as protesters gather outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

A protester pours water in their eye after confronting law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)

People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)