Aurora police chief reacts to response after men escape from ICE facility

By Jennifer McRae

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    AURORA (KCNC) — Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain recently talked about the response time of officers after it was discovered that two men had escaped the Immigration and Customs Enforcement GEO facility earlier this week. Geilond Vido-Romero, 24, and Joel Jose Gonzalez-Gonzalez, 32 were reported missing after a power outage at the facility.

They were being held on local charges before their transfer to the ICE facility last month.

The two men escaped on Tuesday night during a power outage at the facility, according to the Aurora Police Department. It wasn’t until 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday that the police department said they were notified the men were missing.

There seems to be frustration between the Aurora Police Department and ICE after an ICE spokesman claimed that police were notified immediately and declined to assist in the search.

Chamberlain said the department wasn’t notified until hours later.

“Officers are going to respond to what’s known as a hot escape. those are things that have just occurred, and that is within a 15-minute span of time,” said Chamberlain. “Obviously when we look at the time span between 4-and-a-half to 5 hours before Aurora PD was ever even notified of this event – that had long such passed.

Aurora released a timeline of events in question:

9:30 p.m. Tuesday – Power goes out at the ICE GEO facility, causing the doors of at least one exit to become unlocked. ICE officials begin emergency head count.

10 p.m. Tuesday – Estimated time ICE GEO officials believe two detainees escaped, according to the original 911 caller at 2:30 a.m. from ICE GEO.

12:30 a.m. Wednesday – Emergency head count completed. ICE GEO officials confirm two detainees are missing.

2:30 a.m. Wednesday – ICE GEO officials call Aurora911 to report a possible escape of two detainees and request APD response. Due to the lack of information in the initial call, an APD watch commander called ICE GEO officials to clarify the limited and unclear information in the original call notes. During the call with ICE GEO officials, the watch commander learned the escape happened approximately four and one-half hours before it was reported to police. It was determined the timeline of events did not meet the definition of a “hot” escape report, in accordance with the MOU. The call was queued for follow-up.

5:15 a.m. Wednesday – Aurora patrol officer responds to ICE GEO and meets with facility officials to take a report.

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