Kilyn Lewis was shot and killed by Aurora Police in May 2024. One month later, protesters shut down the Aurora City Council. 

“This meeting now becomes ours,” declared activist Auon’tai Anderson, a former Denver school board member known for theatrics, as he led chanting demonstrators toward the dais until council members ended the meeting. 

Far-left activists repeatedly commandeered council meetings, berating officials and turning public comment into spectacles. 

On the day he was shot, Lewis faced attempted murder charges for allegedly shooting a 63-year-old legally blind man. When SWAT showed up, he ignored commands and moved toward his car. SWAT Officer Michael Dieck fired a single shot after Lewis waved an unidentified object — his phone. 

Lewis was no saint. He had prior convictions for aggravated robbery, abuse and burglary. No rap sheet justifies a shooting, but it provides context for why officers perceived a threat when a suspect accused of violent crimes ignores commands. 

Dieck was ultimately cleared by the 18th Judicial District Attorney, a grand jury, the Aurora Police Department’s internal review board and the police department’s independent consent decree monitor — all finding he acted responsibly or within the law. 

The activists didn’t care. Their continued chaos led Aurora City Council in June 2025 to suspend in-person meetings and public comment, shifting to virtual meetings only until a lawsuit from the Lewis family was resolved. 

Another lawsuit soon followed, filed by professional activist MiDian Shofner of the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership, who alleged the public comment suspension violated the First Amendment. 

The new left-wing council majority wasted little time complying. The city rushed to settle with Shofner, agreeing to restore in-person meetings with few exceptions, provide at least one hour of public comment per meeting and pay her attorney fees. 

Colorado law doesn’t require in-person meetings or public comment, as the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition has noted. Going virtual was debatable, but it was legal and understandable given activists’ repeated disruptions. The new majority folded — and cut a $75,000 check. 

Last week, I detailed how the new majority rushed through “emergency rules” to muzzle APD’s social media at activists’ urging. Among them is Jeff McFarland, whose profanity-laced tirade went uninterrupted. 

“Curtis Gardner, Stephanie Hancock, Angela Lawson and Francoise Bergan, I need your f*cking opinions like I need a second vasectomy,” he ranted, naming the four non-leftist members. You’re either “on the f*cking boat” or you aren’t. “We’re coming for each and every one of your positions,” he declared. 

McFarland emailed me that he’s worked with the Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee (DACAC), Shofner and the Lewis family for two years. 

DACAC’s parent organization, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, is led by Frank Edgar Chapman Jr., convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery in 1961. It was founded to support Marxist activist Angela Davis, whom Fidel Castro celebrated as “Comrade Angela Davis” and inducted into his neighborhood spy network. 

“I’m sorry that bad words offend you more than dead citizens who never got their Constitutional right to a fair trial,” McFarland wrote. 

McFarland didn’t respond when I asked him what aggression and profanity accomplish. 

The answer is obvious: This is about nothing more than intimidation and shaming into compliance. 

DACAC is pushing an extreme version of “civilian control of police” that exceeds a bureaucracy-laden police oversight committee progressive council members are already advancing. DACAC proposes an elected “Civilian Police Accountability Council” that would tie voters’ hands by restricting candidates to people “organizing to protect the rights of oppressed people and victims of police brutality” for at least two years. 

People like themselves, of course — excluding law enforcement experts and infringing on free speech to let petulant activists take control. 

The proposal would let the civilian council appoint the chief of police and would grant the new entity subpoena power and authority to investigate police shootings and alleged misconduct. It would hand kangaroo-court power to the very people who’ve spent two years demanding a different verdict on a case four separate investigations already cleared. 

The Lewis family recently dropped Aurora as a co-defendant in their lawsuit against Dieck. They then sued the city in a separate federal court filing, alleging systemic racial profiling and excessive force — having waited for the current, friendlier city council to take power in hopes of a more amenable outcome. If the generous Shofner settlement is any indicator, the plaintiffs are likely to get what they want. 

It’s a familiar playbook perfected by the former Tay Anderson and his allies during his time on Denver’s school board — theatrical antics and intimidation over deliberation and accountability. 

Anderson and his mentor Hashim Coates testify at seemingly every Aurora council meeting. Coates, a legislative aide for Democratic state Rep. Regina English, recently called APD officers “state-sanctioned murderers” — but in 2017 pleaded guilty to prohibited use of a weapon after firing a gun into a car carrying a male prostitute and three others, including children. 

At a 2023 Denver school board meeting, Coates falsely accused parent Kristen Fry of using a racial slur, triggering five months of criminal charges dropped only after she spent thousands forcing Denver Public Schools to release the surveillance footage that exonerated her. All seven board members backed Coates. 

With Anderson, Coates and Shofner, it’s free speech and due process for me but not for thee. Aurora is following their playbook. A compliant council is letting them run it. 

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.