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Cops try surveillance films for leads in death of code officer
City, police officials seek community's help in search of gunman
By BRANDON JOHANSSON
The Aurora Sentinel
AURORA | Police said Friday morning they were looking for surveillance videos at businesses that might shed some light on yesterday’s fatal shooting of a code enforcement officer in north Aurora.
Investigators also are gathering evidence and interviewing residents near the Clinton Apartments, where Aurora Code Enforcement Officer Rodney Morales, 40, was gunned down Thursday afternoon while responding to a routine call.
Detectives will spend some time Friday meeting with Morales’ family members who are expected to arrive from out of town, police said.
Police today said Morales was at the apartment complex in the 1900 block of Clinton Street for a scheduled routine inspection of the interior and exterior of the building. The inspection is part of a citywide program called the Systematic Housing Inspection Program, police said. Appointments for those inspections are made with building managers 30 days in advance, police said.
Morales and a female partner pulled up to the apartment around 1:40 p.m., police said. Morales approached the building and his partner waited in the truck.
Seconds after Morales entered the building, he was shot at least once, police said.
The gunman, who police described as a black male, 18 to 19 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds, fled the scene on foot.
Despite hundreds of officers from Aurora and Denver — some armed with assault rifles, shotguns and canines — conducting a search of a 20-block area of northwest Aurora, the man was able to escape.
Officers searched from Yosemite Street east to Havana Street and from East Montview Boulevard south to East Colfax Avenue.
By Friday morning, police tape that had cordoned off nearly the entire 1900 block of Clinton had been taken down and the dozens of marked police vehicles that patrolled the area had left.
The department is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the identification and charging of the suspect.
“This is a cold-blooded killing,” Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said at a press conference Thursday night. “We need the assistance of the community to find this killer.”
City officials said Morales had worked as a code enforcement officer for about two and a half years.
Kane French, an Aurora contractor who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting, said he saw Morales being taken to an ambulance Thursday afternoon.
“I thought it looked pretty bad. There was a lot of blood on his shirt ... He looked sick, real sick,” French said.
Aurora Public Schools locked down four schools in the vicinity of the shooting in response and Denver locked down three schools. A private school in the area also was locked down. All schools are expected to be open as usual Friday.
Oates said the department is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the identification and charging of the suspect.
Police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Gretchen Fronapfel at 303-739-6013.
Code enforcers usually face more difficulties than dangers
Code enforcement officers in other cities say most people are cooperative when code officers ask them to tidy up their yards or clean up other code violations.
“The vast majority of our customers comply quickly,” Julius Zsako, spokes for Community Planning and Development in Denver. “The vast majority of interactions are positive.”
Zsako said code enforcement officers often deal with things like people parking a car on their lawn or people who use an indoor couch on their outdoor porch, both of which are code violations.
A national organization of code enforcement workers says that the job can often be dangerous and that officers are verbally or physically attacked somewhere in the United States every day.
Murders, however, are rare.
"They do happen," said Carl Smart, a former Ft. Worth, Texas code enforcement officer who is currently president of the American Association of Code Enforcement Officers.
Currently, the association does not keep statistics on death and injuries to officers, but Smart said such deaths are rare. He recalled an officer killed in Texas two years ago and one shot south of Atlanta last year. That officer recovered from his injuries.
"They face a lot of dangers because they knock on doors of strangers and get onto private property," Smart said.
While Morales was killed entering an apartment building in what some consider to be a blighted neighborhood, Smart said good neighborhoods are just as dangerous.
"You don't know who's inside that building or behind that door," he said.
His organization currently offers popular safety classes training officers to be alert, wary and in constant communication with others.
Sherry Patten, spokeswoman for the City of Centennial, said that there are occasionally people who aren’t happy to see a code officer.
“Our code enforcement officers, by and large, don’t face a whole lot of animosity,” she said. “However, there are homeowners who will release their dogs when the code enforcement officer enters the yard.”
Patten said Centennial code enforcement officers have radios that they can use to contact police and work closely with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
“We make sure they have everything at their disposal to make sure they are safe,” she said.
Gail Spencer, administrative manager for Community Planning and Development for the city of Lakewood, said that while most people are friendly with code officers, some aren’t.
“It’s a difficult job, and some people react in an upset manner,” she said, adding that those incidents are not common.
Spencer said code officers are trained in conflict management and always try to behave in a way that assures they are safe.
She said that through a variety of organizations, she and other Lakewood officers knew the Aurora officer killed Thursday.
“We share a bond, and our hearts go out to our fellow comrades in Aurora,” she said.
— KMGH Channel 7 and Aurora Sentinel reporter Jessica Horak contributed to this report.
Investigators also are gathering evidence and interviewing residents near the Clinton Apartments, where Aurora Code Enforcement Officer Rodney Morales, 40, was gunned down Thursday afternoon while responding to a routine call.
Detectives will spend some time Friday meeting with Morales’ family members who are expected to arrive from out of town, police said.
Police today said Morales was at the apartment complex in the 1900 block of Clinton Street for a scheduled routine inspection of the interior and exterior of the building. The inspection is part of a citywide program called the Systematic Housing Inspection Program, police said. Appointments for those inspections are made with building managers 30 days in advance, police said.
Morales and a female partner pulled up to the apartment around 1:40 p.m., police said. Morales approached the building and his partner waited in the truck.
Seconds after Morales entered the building, he was shot at least once, police said.
The gunman, who police described as a black male, 18 to 19 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds, fled the scene on foot.
Despite hundreds of officers from Aurora and Denver — some armed with assault rifles, shotguns and canines — conducting a search of a 20-block area of northwest Aurora, the man was able to escape.
Officers searched from Yosemite Street east to Havana Street and from East Montview Boulevard south to East Colfax Avenue.
By Friday morning, police tape that had cordoned off nearly the entire 1900 block of Clinton had been taken down and the dozens of marked police vehicles that patrolled the area had left.
The department is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the identification and charging of the suspect.
“This is a cold-blooded killing,” Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said at a press conference Thursday night. “We need the assistance of the community to find this killer.”
City officials said Morales had worked as a code enforcement officer for about two and a half years.
Kane French, an Aurora contractor who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting, said he saw Morales being taken to an ambulance Thursday afternoon.
“I thought it looked pretty bad. There was a lot of blood on his shirt ... He looked sick, real sick,” French said.
Aurora Public Schools locked down four schools in the vicinity of the shooting in response and Denver locked down three schools. A private school in the area also was locked down. All schools are expected to be open as usual Friday.
Oates said the department is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the identification and charging of the suspect.
Police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Gretchen Fronapfel at 303-739-6013.
Code enforcers usually face more difficulties than dangers
Code enforcement officers in other cities say most people are cooperative when code officers ask them to tidy up their yards or clean up other code violations.
“The vast majority of our customers comply quickly,” Julius Zsako, spokes for Community Planning and Development in Denver. “The vast majority of interactions are positive.”
Zsako said code enforcement officers often deal with things like people parking a car on their lawn or people who use an indoor couch on their outdoor porch, both of which are code violations.
A national organization of code enforcement workers says that the job can often be dangerous and that officers are verbally or physically attacked somewhere in the United States every day.
Murders, however, are rare.
"They do happen," said Carl Smart, a former Ft. Worth, Texas code enforcement officer who is currently president of the American Association of Code Enforcement Officers.
Currently, the association does not keep statistics on death and injuries to officers, but Smart said such deaths are rare. He recalled an officer killed in Texas two years ago and one shot south of Atlanta last year. That officer recovered from his injuries.
"They face a lot of dangers because they knock on doors of strangers and get onto private property," Smart said.
While Morales was killed entering an apartment building in what some consider to be a blighted neighborhood, Smart said good neighborhoods are just as dangerous.
"You don't know who's inside that building or behind that door," he said.
His organization currently offers popular safety classes training officers to be alert, wary and in constant communication with others.
Sherry Patten, spokeswoman for the City of Centennial, said that there are occasionally people who aren’t happy to see a code officer.
“Our code enforcement officers, by and large, don’t face a whole lot of animosity,” she said. “However, there are homeowners who will release their dogs when the code enforcement officer enters the yard.”
Patten said Centennial code enforcement officers have radios that they can use to contact police and work closely with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
“We make sure they have everything at their disposal to make sure they are safe,” she said.
Gail Spencer, administrative manager for Community Planning and Development for the city of Lakewood, said that while most people are friendly with code officers, some aren’t.
“It’s a difficult job, and some people react in an upset manner,” she said, adding that those incidents are not common.
Spencer said code officers are trained in conflict management and always try to behave in a way that assures they are safe.
She said that through a variety of organizations, she and other Lakewood officers knew the Aurora officer killed Thursday.
“We share a bond, and our hearts go out to our fellow comrades in Aurora,” she said.
— KMGH Channel 7 and Aurora Sentinel reporter Jessica Horak contributed to this report.
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