Aurora police investigate suspected gang activity at Colorado apartment complex, chief says suspects "must be stopped"

CBS News

2 days ago

The Aurora Police Department is investigating suspected gang activity at an apartment complex that is reminiscent of last year's Tren de Aragua gang activity at another apartment complex in the Colorado city.
The apartment complex in Aurora is near the intersection of 6th Avenue and Potomac Street.
CBS
During a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, Police Chief Todd Chamberlain spoke about an incident last week involving armed suspects at 544 Potomac Street. He played a video from June 9 showing several people armed with guns positioned in hallways and stairways, many of them knocking repeatedly on a unit's door.
Aurora Police
"The one thing I think is the positive about this is the individuals who had just moved into that apartment complex did not open that door," said Chamberlain. "Had they opened that door, I shudder to think of what might have happened to them."
Chamberlain said the people living in that unit had moved from Venezuela just two days before, and he believes they are being victimized by others who also immigrated from Venezuela.
"They are picking on a community that they are versed in. They are picking on a community that is the immigrant population in the city of Aurora. They are picking on a community that are primarily Venezuelan," said the chief.
The police chief explained the June 9 incident was not the first time Aurora police had responded to the apartment complex near 6th Avenue and Potomac Street. Calls for service began in August 2024, he said, for at least 12 separate incidents including shots fired, squatters, assaults and a kidnapping.
Chamberlain said the video was given to police by a neighbor. That video helped officers execute a search warrant on June 11, and officers also passed out flyers -- in English and Spanish -- and spoke to people living in the building about the concerning activity. Chamberlain noted that while there are problems in the complex, it is not a problem location.
During their search, Chamberlain said detectives found a firearm and a red hoodie that was used by one of the suspects seen in the surveillance video. That suspect, 23-year-old Larry Galbreath, was arrested and faces charges including felony menacing with a firearm and violation of a protection order.
Aurora Police
Chamberlain explained Galbreath lives in the apartment complex and told police he was tattooed, or "marked," by a Venezuelan.
"They are building networks by using other people," Chamberlain said of the influx of gang activity in that area.
Police believe there are at least nine people involved in this incident, two of whom are now in custody, including Galbreath. Investigators are actively working to identify the others and take them into custody. While Chamberlain could not definitively say if this latest gang activity is Tren de Aragua, he said it is "disturbing" and he will use every resource he can -- local, state, and federal -- to hold them accountable.
"The reason that I am sharing this video now is because I want everyone to understand and know that we are ahead of this. This isn't something that we are reacting to, this is something that we are proactively addressing," Chamberlain said. "I look at these individuals like a cancer. They are not a benign cancer, they are a cancer that is causing victimization, they are cancer that must be addressed, they must be cut out and they must be stopped."
Chamberlain said, unlike the incident at the apartment complex last summer, the property owners and management company are cooperating with this investigation.