DENVER — The teen suspect accused of fatally shooting a 14-year-old outside Denver's Southwest Recreation Center in August has been charged as an adult.
On Aug. 8, officers with the Denver Police Department responded to the Southwest Recreation Center after receiving a report that a person appeared to have been shot in the face.
The victim was later identified as 14-year-old Josiaz Aragon, who often went by JoJo, according to the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. His cause of death was listed as multiple sharp and blunt force injuries, plus a gunshot wound. His manner of death was ruled a homicide, the office said.
Several weeks after the homicide, police announced they had arrested a suspect: 17-year-old Diego Eugene Lopez. His birthday is the date after the homicide.
Aragon's 15th birthday would have been Aug. 10, two days after his death.
Lopez was formally charged on Thursday with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery with a real or simulated weapon, tampering with physical evidence, possessing a firearm as a juvenile, and a sentence enhancer, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office.
The district attorney's office also released a 22-page arrest affidavit on Thursday, which detailed events that happened leading up to Aragon's death and Lopez's arrest.
The affidavit reads that on the afternoon of the homicide, Aug. 8, a person called 911 from the 9200 block of W. Saratoga Place to report seeing a person — later identified as Aragon — who had been shot in the face behind the Southwest Recreation Center.
Both the Denver Fire Department and police department arrived at the scene, and a firefighter determined Aragon was "beyond resuscitation," according to the affidavit. He was found on his back in a grassy, relatively secluded area behind the center. His face and head showed numerous injuries, the affidavit reads. The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner’s medicolegal death investigators also found trauma to his torso, a possible defensive wound on his hand, and a possible gunshot wound on his neck.
He was pronounced deceased at 3:05 p.m.
He did not have any identification or a phone on him, the investigators found.
At the scene, police found live handgun ammunition, the base plate for a handgun magazine, and one fire cartridge casing, plus shoeprints in blood that didn't match Aragon's shoes.
Back at the department headquarters, police interviewed a witness, who explained that between 1 p.m. and 1:45 p.m., he saw a teenage male — wearing a black hoody with the hood up and black sweatpants — walk east past the pool and out of sight. The witness told police he remembered this outfit because he thought it was odd since it was so warm outside. The witness said he also saw the teen high-five another person, and he assumed they were friends, according to the affidavit.
Several minutes later, the witness said he heard what he thought was a firework, but later realized it was a gunshot.
Aragon was found deceased in the same type of clothing the witness had described, according to the affidavit.
Police also spoke with a person who lives nearby, who had surveillance cameras that showed Aragon getting out of the passenger side of a car, possibly a Scion coupe, at 1:12 p.m. and walking toward the area where his body was later found. Two minutes later, the driver of the car pulled away and drove toward the same direction Aragon had started walking, according to the affidavit.
The investigation continued into the following day, Aug. 9.
The autopsy was performed that day, and police noticed two distinctive tattoos on Aragon's body. The autopsy also detailed his actual injuries, which included sharp force injuries, significant blunt force injuries and a gunshot wound to the scapula — his upper back — that exited through his neck, meaning he had been shot in the back. He had "pattern injuries" on his face and neck that seemed to match the tread of a shoe, according to the affidavit.
"Of the 101 homicides Your Affiant has been either the primary or secondary investigator on, this victim suffered injuries indicative of the most violent assault Your Affiant has seen," the affidavit reads. "Further, Your Affiant doesn’t recall being involved in a case where one victim was assaulted in so many different ways; stabbed, beaten-probably 'pistol whipped,' shot and possibly stomped on."
Shortly after noon on Aug. 9, a woman contacted police about not being able to reach her son, who had left with an unknown person around noon on Aug. 7. In her description of her son, she noted the two tattoos that police had identified on Aragon. Plus, the clothing description she provided matched what he had been wearing.
Police informed her of what had happened to Aragon.
During the subsequent conversation, the mother told police about a person — claiming to be a gang member — who had been threatening to shoot up their house on Aragon's birthday, according to the affidavit. When police left to continue the investigation, a DPD victim specialist stayed with the mother.
After this, police spoke with another person, though the affidavit redacts how she and Aragon knew each other. The person said she had last texted with Aragon at 12:23 p.m. on Monday — which she later corrected to Sunday — and he was on the way home from a store with his mother. The person provided details on several people and incidents that could have been related to Aragon's death.
One person was described as a 15-year-old who had been reportedly threatening to shoot Aragon, or into his home — matching a threat Aragon's mother had also described to police. The person also told police that Aragon was friends with a 15-year-old who was killed on April 11, 2020, and enemies were made following the shooting.
This individual later showed police a text exchange with Aragon, and she told police that she believed he had recently purchased a gun — identified as a Taurus 9mm — for protection against the threats he had been receiving, according to the affidavit.
Two days after the homicide — Aug. 10, and also what would have been Aragon's 15th birthday — an unknown person told police that she had been told, though not personally seen herself, a young man who had posted on Facebook that he was "going to jail for the shooting," according to the affidavit. Police found several social media pages for the young man, including a post referencing a shooting.
The following day, Aug. 11, police learned that Aragon had attended Bear Creek High School (BCHS) for the fall semester of the 2021-2022 school year. The school is less than three miles from the scene of the homicide.
At 12:16 p.m. that day, a detective with the Lakewood Police Department contacted the Denver Police Department. The detective, a high school resource officer at BCHS, said Aragon was "very charismatic, but often dressed and behaved as if he was a 'wanna be' gang member, although was never involved in any serious trouble at the school," the affidavit reads.
The detective explained to Denver investigators that on Aug. 10, a school administrator contacted him after they were contacted by a teacher, who was contacted by a student about a person named Diego. According to the student, "Diego" had sent them pictures of bloody hands, but no other information. The detective was able to obtain a screenshot of this text.
The Lakewood detective told Denver investigators that he knew a student named Diego Lopez, now 17 years old. Lopez had been a Denver Public Schools student before. The detective also knew Lopez lived only a few minutes away from where Aragon had been killed, according to the affidavit.
Denver police began looking into Lopez's background and did not find any criminal history or issues at school.
Around 2 p.m. on Aug. 11, police spoke with a woman who had been around the recreation center at the time of the shooting. She said around 1:15 p.m. that day, she was walking with her kids to a pool when she saw a young man, roughly 15 years old. He was "running, but not as if he was exercising. She thought that was strange, and all the more so given that he was wearing a jacket, possibly with a hat on, and long pants. She could only describe him further as having olive or brown skin," the affidavit read. A little ways up the sidewalk, just past where the teen ran, she noticed a $20 bill on the ground. She picked it up and put it in her bag.
The woman said around 3 p.m., she noticed police arriving in the area, but didn't know why. When she got home, she realized the $20 bill appeared to have blood on it. After watching the news that evening and realizing there had been a murder in the area, she notified police, who submitted the money for a laboratory analysis, according to the affidavit.
Police then began searching for video surveillance from homes in the direction that the woman said the teen ran that day. Police also noted it was in the direction of Lopez's house. This effort resulted new footage that showed a person matching Lopez's description running toward the area around 1:15 p.m. and then away from it at 1:33 p.m.
Four days after the homicide, on Aug. 12, a person called police after 4 p.m., claiming somebody had posted a video documenting the murder on a SnapChat. A detective preserved that account's SnapChat posts, but police never heard anything more about the video or could not confirm if it even existed. A few days later, police obtained a search warrant for Lopez's SnapChat. On Aug. 23, SnapChat sent the data to police, which showed Lopez as the listed subscriber, as well as his contact information. While any photos or videos related to the homicide were not in the returned data, there was evidence that several items had been deleted, according to the affidavit.
However, as outlined in the affidavit, police were able to glean the following information from the available SnapChat data:
- A video of a handgun that appeared to be for sale
- Photos of Lopez showing his hair and mustache around the days of the shooting. This appearance is much different than what police would see during a later search warrant, when he had cut off much of his hair and shaved
- A brief video of the site of the shooting days before the crime
- A photo of his right hand the day after the homicide, holding a crucifix. He has fresh injuries on his hand
- A short video of a handgun and large amount of cash that spelled out a word — redacted in the affidavit — on his bedroom floor on the morning of Aug. 8
On Aug. 15, police received call detail records from Aragon's cell phone. The day of his death, he connected with the same phone number eight times between 11:41 a.m. and 1:20 p.m. That same number called Aragon's phone four times after the shooting. About a month later, records would show the number's listed address matched a residence in northeast Denver and when police drove by, they saw a Scion in the driveway that matched witness descriptions and surveillance footage of the vehicle Aragon had left as he walked around the rec center on the day of his death, according to the affidavit.
The young man behind the wheel of the Scion that day confirmed to police that Aragon had asked for a ride to and from the rec center. The driver also confirmed Aragon had his phone with him when he got out of the car. He had waited for some time for Aragon before driving away, according to the affidavit.
Police determined that Aragon's cell phone left the area after his death and was turned off about 15 minutes later. This seemed to indicate that Aragon's phone, in addition to the bloodied $20, had been stolen from him, according to the affidavit.
On Aug. 16, the bloodied shoe prints from the crime scene were confirmed as Air Force 1s, which Lopez owns. No other shoeprints were found at the scene. Denver police obtained Lopez's school schedule, but were informed that "he’d possibly disenrolled from BCHS in the past couple of days," according to the affidavit. The following day, Lopez did not show up for the first day of school.
Based on all of the information Denver police had in this case, a search warrant was signed for Lopez's house.
Two days after this, on Aug. 18, Denver police, including the department's fugitive unit and a SWAT unit, executed the warrants around 4:30 p.m. While several parties exited the home when police ordered them to do so, a SWAT sergeant saw Lopez look through the front door and then retreat back into the home, according to the affidavit. Shortly afterward, he walked out the door.
"Your Affiant suspects that Diego disobeyed the initial orders to exit the home and instead retreated inside to hide or destroy evidence related to this homicide investigation," the affidavit reads.
The document said the search warrant found the following possible evidence during this search:
- Air Force 1 shoes from Lopez's closet, which were the same shoes that made bloody shoeprints at the homicide scene
- Jeans and watch that match a photo of Lopez gathered previously in the investigation
- A saliva sample from Lopez
- Small healing injuries to Lopez's right hand
- Lopez's cell phone (which appeared to have been very recently restarted or reset to make data recovery difficult)
On Aug. 19, police obtained a search warrant allowing them to examine Lopez's cell phone. A few days later, police learned that about eight hours after the shooting, Lopez obtained a different or new cell phone, possibly in an effort to avoid suspicion in the case, according to the affidavit. Police found evidence in his Gmail account regarding password resets, which lines up with setting up a new phone. In September, they also found an email from Meta on the day of the homicide regarding Lopez's recent request to delete his Instagram account, according to the affidavit.
On Aug. 30, investigators spoke with a person at BCHS, who confirmed that Lopez had sent her a SnapChat of "his bloody hand and shoe" but then he quickly deleted them, according to the affidavit.
About a week later, on Sept. 7, Meta provided data investigators requested via search warrant on six Facebook pages and two Instagram pages. All but one piece of data was redacted in the affidavit.
The piece that was unredacted was an Instagram conversation between Aragon and a person who answered to "Diego," so investigators attributed the other account to Lopez, according to the affidavit. The two teens started messaging each other on July 8 about a gun deal. It appeared they had done something similar before, based on their conversation. On the day of the homicide, Lopez messaged Aragon "what's the word" and Aragon asked to meet. Lopez provided the Southwest Recreation Center as the meetup location for a transaction — Aragon appeared to want to sell a .45 caliber firearm for $900. In the Instagram messages, Lopez added "I got 9 for you," likely indicating to the $900, according to the affidavit.
While Aragon waited for Lopez to show up, Aragon messaged him to come alone "because he doesn't trust others," according to the affidavit. The communication ends after they exchange messages about where they both were in the park as they tried to find each other.
Based on the severity of Aragon's injuries, investigators said they believe more than one suspect may have been involved in his killing, but this remains unclear. Two others are being investigated in connection with this homicide, but investigators have not found evidence to implicate them, the affidavit reads.
Specific DNA evidence for this case was redacted in the affidavit, however it reads that based on forensic evidence, police know Lopez and Aragon were in physical contact.
Based on all the information investigators have learned, they believe the gun deal transpired and Lopez received the firearm and Aragon received the $900. Aragon likely then turned away to leave and head back to the Scion and Lopez shot him in the back, according to the affidavit. In an unknown order, Lopez then pistol-whipped Aragon, which caused the baseplate of the magazine to come off, stabbed him and may have stomped on his head, the affidavit reads. Lopez then gathered the weapons, took Aragon's cell phone and money, and fled on foot toward his home, dropping a $20 with a fraction of a fingerprint on it, along the way, the document continues.
Shortly after he arrived home, Lopez took a picture of his hands, turned off Aragon's phone, began removing online evidence, and obtained a different cell phone, the document reads. Within about a week of the homicide, he also cut his hair and shaved, and the injury to his hand had started to heal.
Lopez was arrested on the evening of Sept. 30. He was formally charged with murder on Thursday.
In response to the release of the affidavit, Lopez's attorney, Jason Flores-Williams, said: "We haven’t even had a meaningful day in court, and my client is already being portrayed in a false light. Right now, he is presumed innocent and we intend to fight vigorously on Diego’s behalf."