Elijah Wilkins

On a summer evening in Aurora, Colorado, the life of Elijah Wilkins, a 19-year-old Black / African American man, was tragically cut short. On July 14, 2019, he was in a car with his cousin, Darius Banks, when a single gunshot changed everything.

Police first encountered the scene when they responded to a head-on crash at East 13th Avenue and Newark Street shortly after 7 p.m. Inside one of the vehicles, they discovered Wilkins suffering from a gunshot wound. First responders rushed him to University Hospital, but he was pronounced dead about 20 minutes after his arrival.

In the initial hours of the investigation, Banks told authorities a fabricated story. He claimed that he and Wilkins had argued with two men in another vehicle and that Wilkins had been shot after exiting their car to confront them. However, investigators found no evidence to support his account. Their suspicions grew when they discovered a black handgun, a bloody shirt, and a cell phone on the sidewalk near Banks' home. A neighbor also came forward, reporting that she had heard a gunshot and witnessed a bleeding man get into the passenger side of a silver sedan before it drove away.

Confronted with the mounting evidence, Banks admitted to accidentally shooting his cousin. According to court documents, he confessed that they had been in a silver Hyundai sedan parked outside his house on Lansing Street. Banks said he was spinning the trigger guard of Wilkins’ handgun around his finger when the weapon discharged, striking Wilkins in his left arm and chest. He explained to police that he had lied at first because he "was afraid of getting into trouble."

Police arrested Banks in the early morning hours of July 15, 2019. On July 24, 2020, he pleaded guilty to a single count of felony reckless manslaughter for his cousin’s death. In August 2020, Arapahoe County District Court Judge John Scipione sentenced Banks to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service. The sentence also required him to undergo a mental health evaluation and attend a class entitled “making better decisions.”