AURORA, Colo. — Gang members had “used threats and coercion to control” a troubled apartment complex on Nome Street in Aurora now at the center of national attention on the city, according to a 2023 security survey that listed gang activity among a litany of issues there.
The Fitzsimons Place apartments at 1568 Nome Street had become a “badge of honor” for gang members who were “emboldened by the reputation” of living there, the survey reads, with some telling the Aurora officer who conducted the report that “if you can survive in these apartments then you are ‘hard.’”
The revelations were part of a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) survey conducted in October of 2023, which also detailed rising crime, rampant drug use and a slew of security and quality-of-life issues at the complex. CPTED surveys offer entities a proposed path to reducing crime through natural security measures.
Fitzsimons Place, which has also been called Aspen Grove, has since been shut down over a series of code violations.
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An October 2023 security survey obtained by Denver7 details gang activity among a litany of issues at 1568 Nome Street, months before the complex garnered national attention. Denver7's Veronica Acosta reports.
The survey, addressed to CBZ Management owner Zev Baumgarten, serves as proof the landlord was warned about a growing gang presence months before CBZ blamed the conditions at a set of rundown complexes on a purported gang takeover.
Police had implemented a “three-car response” to Fitzsimons Place – meaning officers can’t respond to a call until three cars are available – amid a crime spike at the complex that included assaults on officers and damage to several police vehicles. The survey cites a 59% increase in general offense reports and a 41% increase in calls for service from 2022 to 2023.
The increase in crime came as "gangs in the area [had] moved into the apartments and [used] threats and coercion to control the apartments," according to the officer who wrote the report. "All of this is documented in both calls for Police service and also by my own personal experiences," he wrote.
In one instance, gang members’ families allegedly took photos of residents following a shooting at the apartments. They then “used those pictures to extort them and tell them that if they spoke to Police not only would they be harmed, their families back in Venezuela would also be harmed.”
The survey doesn’t mention the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) by name, but echoes claims made in internal APD emails made public on social media last week by Aurora councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky that were apparently linked to the department’s TdA investigation.
Denver7 has requested to independently obtain documents related to Tren de Aragua from the City of Aurora.
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Aurora PD was aware of TdA operations in the city last fall, emails seem to show
Alleged gang operations were one of many issues cited in the CPTED survey.
The apartment complex lobby was littered with drug paraphernalia and smelled of urine and trash, it said, also citing unlocked doors, poor lighting and a lack of amenities as problems facing residents.
Fitzsimons Place, the survey states, had fallen into disrepair as other nearby complexes had evolved with increasing demand fueled by the neighboring University of Colorado Hospital.
The survey offered several recommendations for improvement it said would be “fairly easy to accomplish.” The recommendations included improved lighting and updated locking mechanisms for doors and gates, as well as the addition of a play area for kids and improved gathering areas to foster a sense of community among residents. It also recommends things like fences around the complex and dumpster enclaves to better utilize the parking lot.
Residents at the complex complained to Denver7 of poor living conditions in March of 2023. Fitzsimons Place was deemed a criminal nuisance in September of 2023. In August of 2024, the City of Aurora deemed the complex “unfit” and closed it.
The city paused plans to close other CBZ properties earlier this month after it appointed a caretaker for the buildings.
Today, one year since the CPTED survey was conducted, a contentious back-and-forth rages on between the property manager and the city. CBZ has taken to a newly created social media account to renew claims of a TdA takeover, garnering attention from the likes of Elon Musk.
While the city continues to dispute the claims of a gang takeover, Jurinsky has released a series of photos, videos and email exchanges she says prove the problem is worse than city officials have let on.
Meanwhile, Aurora has found itself at the center of the national debate on the topic of immigration, with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump calling attention to the city on the debate stage and later promising a nationwide “Operation Aurora” at a Colorado rally.
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