More than a dozen people attacked a man and woman in a suburb of Denver, the city’s police chief said on Dec. 17.
“The victims were held against their will. They were actually bound, both the male and the female. They were pistol-whipped. They were beat. They were victimized. They were terrorized,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told reporters during a press conference.
The man was also stabbed, Chamberlain added later. He said the couple was tortured.
The attack—which happened at the same apartment complex that has been the subject of numerous crimes—was gang-related, according to the police chief.
“This is, without question, a gang incident. I don’t know which gang they are affiliated with yet. It might be [Tren de Aragua]. It could not be [Tren de Aragua]. We will determine that, and we will find that out,” Chamberlain said.
The population of Aurora is close to 400,000. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have arrived there in recent years.
“We’re talking about an entire small city that got put into a large city,” Chamberlain said.
That’s caused problems, in part because the federal government has only been focused on easing migration into the United States and not helping people once they arrive, the police chief said.
“I had a discussion with an individual from the White House, and that occurred back on September the 23rd I believe, and that person basically told me that once these immigrants get across the border, that’s all we really care about. And to me, that’s a problem,” he said. “They get dropped off into a community, they have absolutely no infrastructure, they have absolutely no support. They have absolutely no guidance from the federal government about what to do, how to live, how to survive, and this is the ramifications of that activity.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.
Most of the group that attacked the couple were males, Chamberlain said.
The suspects eventually released the couple after they promised not to notify the police if they were released. After being released, the couple went to a friend’s house in another part of the city and notified the police.
Officers went to the scene of the incident and locked down the apartment complex. They detained about 15 people who were allegedly involved in the attack.
“I can’t thank them enough, because we took people that have the highest propensity of hurting somebody else out of the system, and we put them in custody,” Chamberlain said.
The victims were taken to a nearby hospital for the treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Local police are trying to figure out the identity of the suspects, with assistance from federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Chamberlain said police have been trying to stem the explosion in crime in the complex but that the building had become so problematic that it should be cleared out.
Many people in the building are living in squalor, the police chief said. As officers have gone door to door, they’ve seen little but mattresses on the floor in some of the apartments.
“It’s deplorable,” he said. “There’s nobody in this room that would live like that right now. There’s nobody, probably, in the audience that would.”
City officials have gone to court to have most of the complex closed for being what they called a criminal nuisance, alleging that the owner neglected the buildings, allowing crime to flourish there. They expect five of the buildings will be shut down early next year after the property owner, New York-based CBZ Management, did not try to fight the action.
