AURORA, Colo. — Two victims allegedly beaten, robbed and tortured for hours by more than a dozen gang members inside a troubled Aurora apartment complex Monday night sat down exclusively with Denver7 on Wednesday to share their harrowing story.
Sixteen people — all suspected of being “members or associates” of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua — were in custody Wednesday in the wake of what authorities have described as a brazen home invasion, burglary and kidnapping.
The victims, Venezuelan immigrants who wished not to be identified by name, said they were returning to the Edge of Lowry complex from a shopping trip when they saw the lights on in their apartment unit. As they approached, a group of at least eight armed people grabbed them and took them to a different unit.
The victims said they were then stabbed, beaten, and robbed of everything they had. Their captors scoured their phones, stealing bank passwords and going through photos and social media accounts, the victims said.
“I thought I was going to die,” one of them told Denver7’s Kristian Lopez. “I started praying silently, telling God if I had to go, to take me to him.”
It wasn’t until several hours later, in the early morning hours Tuesday, that they were able to talk the suspects into letting them go.
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“I heard one captor tell another that killing two people was going to cause too many problems,” one of the victims recalled to Denver7.
The victims notified police a short time later, once they had made it safely to a friend’s house in a different part of town.
In a lengthy media address Tuesday, Aurora police chief Todd Chamberlain commended the “courage” of the victims to come forward. He said the suspects in this case used a common tactic in choosing their target.
“Individuals involved in this type of activity, they victimize their own race and their own ethnicity,” he said, adding that “the reason they do that is because they know, because of their status, they will not come forward to police.”
- Denver7 was there when Chamberlain spoke to news media about the incident. You can view the full news conference in the video player below.
Aurora chief describes violent home invasion, kidnapping, 15 suspects detained: Full news conference
They said they’ve now been left with nothing as they have no food, clothing or money. They are trying to figure out how to move forward.
While the victims suffered non-life threatening injuries, they told Denver7 their kidnapping was “very traumatic” — and potentially damaging to the narrative surrounding immigration in America.
“I didn’t understand why that was happening to me if I came here to change my quality of life,” one of the victims said. “The majority of people who come here have goals and dreams, and people like that make a whole nationality look bad.”
The suspects, who have yet to be identified by law enforcement, are all Venezuelan nationals are will remain on an immigration hold “pending removal proceedings or hearings before an immigration judge,” an ICE spokesperson said in a news release.
