AURORA, Colo. — A jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on one of the counts in the case of an Aurora police officer who was accused of shooting a man on New Year's Eve in 2022, and a new trial was set for next year.
Douglas Harroun was found not guilty of first-degree assault, but the jury was hung on the second count, which was a second-degree assault charge. A new trial date was set for Jan. 21, 2025 for prosecutors to retry the second count.
According to a news release from the department on Jan. 1, 2023, an officer with the Aurora Police Department, later identified as Harroun, shot a man in the leg during a domestic violence-related arrest along the 1200 block of N. Chambers Road. Police had responded to a 911 call from a woman reporting a domestic violence situation and the officers began to arrest a man. However, he was uncooperative and another man became involved. An officer — Harroun — ended up shooting that second man, police said.
According to our news partners at The Denver Post, investigators later found the officer had no justification for the shooting and lied about what happened.
Harroun was arrested on charges of assault.
This week, a jury acquitted him of a first-degree assault charge.
In a separate case, Harroun was taken into custody and booked into the Arapahoe County Detention Facility after allegedly punching a 49-year-old woman with disabilities several times in the head and face on the evening of Jan. 11, 2023, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
Crime
Affidavit: Off-duty Aurora officer punched woman with disabilities several times
A few months after the incident, the woman, Wyoma Martinez, filed a lawsuit against the City of Aurora, claiming excessive force, false arrest and failure to train. The lawsuit was shared with Denver7.
The Denver Post reported that Harroun pleaded guilty in September to reckless endangerment in connection with this case.
Aurora