AURORA, Colo. (NewsNation) — The mayor of Aurora tells NewsNation that law enforcement is actively working to identify and arrest the men seen walking around an apartment complex carrying weapons.
“We’ve got several properties that have a concentration of Venezuelan migrants in them, and unfortunately, there’s a criminal element,” Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, told NewsNation.
Video footage shows the group entering an apartment building, carrying what appear to be rifles and handguns, except for one man on a cellphone, NewsNation local affiliate KDVR reported. In the video, the men then gather around a door and go inside.
“I think some of the people that you’re seeing in this video have already been apprehended,” Coffman said. “We’ve got our own police force, combined with state and federal partners working, not just in Aurora, but throughout the Denver Metro area to try to get these people off the street.”
Coffman stressed, however, that the incidents at the apartment complex do not reflect the city of Aurora as a whole.
“I want to put this in context,” Coffman said. “We are the 51st largest city in the United States with over 400,000 in population; this is several apartment units all under the same out-of-state ownership that has allowed these properties to become run down.”