Affidavits detail charges against gang-linked brothers at Aurora apartments

DENVER (KDVR) — Arrest affidavits detail charges against two reported Venezuelan gang members accused in a shooting at a troubled apartment complex, including an assault months earlier where a witness told police that one of the brothers was part of a gang that claimed it owned the property.

The brothers, Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos, 24, and Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, 22, who is also known as “Cookie” or “Galleta,” are known members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang , police have confirmed in recent weeks.

The arrest affidavits show Aurora police were made aware of reported gang activity at the Nome Street complex as far back as November, when one of the brothers was accused of an assault, and a witness made allegations of ongoing organized crime activity at the complex.

Both brothers were arrested shortly after a July 28 shooting at the apartment complex and have since been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

November assault leads to one gang member’s arrest

An arrest affidavit for Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos links him to a beating at the Nome Street complex in November. He was arrested in March and bonded out, months before he would be accused in the July shooting.

An arrest affidavit released to FOX31 on Tuesday details the beating incident on Nov. 12, 2023. Police were called to the Nome Street apartment complex at about 2:20 a.m. after multiple reports were received about the assault.

This affidavit noted that the “building is currently used to house refugees, primary from Venezuela. The majority of the residents and staff are Spanish speaking.”

Officers spoke to the victim’s wife, who said he had been “beat with a bottle and bleeding to death.” Most of the callers who reported the incident refused to provide their names but told dispatchers a man was bleeding and losing consciousness, and a female was screaming for help.

The man was transported to the University of Colorado Anschutz for treatment. The victim’s wife was interviewed at the apartment complex, but police said she gave a different story after she was interviewed at the hospital. She told police that the person who had assaulted her husband was “Galleta,” and said he was “part of a gang that steals from Walmart and believes they own the apartment complex.”

She told police she was afraid of being murdered by “Galleta” and his associates for making the police report.

Police identified Galleta as Jhonardy and had records of him as the victim of a domestic violence incident on Oct. 2, 2023, and also had records that he had been issued a traffic summons by APD on Aug. 2, 2023.

Police also found that Jhonardy was charged in October 2022 with “alien inadmissibility” by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in Del Rio, Texas.

Affidavit details officers’ response, interviews with Nome Street residents

The July 28 incident at 1568 Nome Street was reported at about 4:30 a.m., with callers stating there were people shot and someone may have been stabbed. Through the course of the investigation, officers found approximately seven people were shooting in the surveillance footage.

According to an arrest affidavit for Jhonnarty, officers arrived on the scene and attempted to “secure the chaotic scene.” There were at least two gunshot victims in the incident, and one person who jumped from a fourth-floor window had lower leg fractures.

According to the affidavit, Aurora police found numerous fired casings on the ground in front of apartment No. 102. Officers knocked, 18 people were removed from the apartment and no weapons were located. However, two of the people removed from the apartment were later identified as Jhonnarty and Jhonardy.

APD interviewed Jhonnarty after the shooting. He told police he lived in No. 202 with his parents and two children, as well as his brother. He said that he was inside No. 202 with his parents and children when he heard four or five gunshots outside. He told police that after waiting about eight minutes, Jhonnarty went downstairs to No. 102 to check on his family and friends because the apartment was his cousin’s.

Jhonnarty told police he didn’t see anyone injured when he ran downstairs, according to the arrest affidavit, but did see people running into apartments. He also told police he wasn’t sure where his brother was when the gunshots happened, because he wasn’t inside No. 202.

Jhonnarty told APD there were eight or 10 people inside No. 102 when he got there.

“All he knew was that people had been hanging out in front of the apartment earlier in the night drinking and partying, but he did not know what happened to provoke this incident,” the affidavit stated.

Police interviewed another person who had been inside No. 102 when officers knocked on July 28, who said he and a group of five others were drinking outside when they heard 15 gunshots. He said that before the gunshots, he heard arguing on the upper floors, but the music was too loud to make out what was said.

The man told police he saw a Hispanic man on the third floor with a gun who was limping. He said he saw the man was holding a gun and making “signs towards the second floor.” The man also told police that he was not associated with a gang, but knew there was a Venezuelan gang in the area.

Surveillance video shows man holding fully-automatic pistol, muzzle flashes

Surveillance video was also reviewed from the early morning hours of July 28. APD said a man can be seen shooting a handgun with an extended magazine, and later identified the weapon as a “ Tec-9″ machine gun pistol that the department said is fully automatic. Fully automatic weapons manufactured after 1986 are illegal for private individuals to own in the U.S.

Police slowed down the video footage and observed the male wearing shorts with the word “Guess” on the side, which one of the detectives recognized as what Jhonnarty had been wearing while he was interviewed. His shorts had been photographed by police because they appeared to have blood on them, the affidavit stated, and the person in the video footage matched Jhonnarty’s physical descriptors as observed by the detective.

At least three men were seen on the video footage exchanging gunfire with parties on the other side of the complex, where Jhonnarty was located on camera initially.

Police said surveillance cameras showed people outside on all floors before the shooting, which began on the third floor. A detective noted that before the shooting, “multiple parties could be seen on camera outside of No. 102 with firearms in hand as the shooting began.”

The affidavit said muzzle flashes could be seen from inside No. 102 after the same people fled into the unit.

Both brothers are now in the custody of ICE at the Denver Contract Detention Facility, according to an ICE spokesperson.

Jhonardy was ordered removed from the country by an immigration judge on Aug. 23. Jhonnarty was previously ordered to leave the country in 2022, and released with an order to appear in court.

Aurora has since shuttered the Nome Street complex, which had fallen into deep disrepair. The city cited code violations, while the property management claimed they had been run out by gang activity.

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