On a summer evening in Aurora, Colorado, the life of 19-year-old Elijah Wilkins was tragically cut short. The young Black / African American man was in a vehicle with his cousin, Darius Banks, also 19, on July 14, 2019, when a single gunshot changed everything. Responding to a head-on crash at East 13th Avenue and Newark Street just after 7 p.m., police discovered Wilkins inside a vehicle, suffering from a fatal gunshot wound.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital but ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
In the initial hours of the investigation, Banks told authorities a fabricated story. He claimed that he and Wilkins had gotten into an argument with two men in another vehicle and that Wilkins had been shot after exiting their car to confront them. However, investigators found no evidence of a crime scene at the location Banks provided. 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 what sounded like a gunshot and witnessed a man bleeding from his left side get back into the passenger side of a silver sedan before it drove away. Surveillance footage from another home corroborated her account.
Confronted with the mounting evidence that contradicted his initial statement, Darius Banks admitted to accidentally shooting his cousin. According to the police affidavit, Banks confessed that he had been 'twirling the handgun around with his finger in the trigger guard' when the weapon discharged, striking Wilkins. He explained to the police that he had lied at first because he 'didn't want to get in trouble.' Banks was arrested in the early morning hours of the following day and faced charges of manslaughter and attempt to influence a public servant for his role in the tragic and unintentional death of his cousin.
