On a September afternoon in 2006, veteran Aurora Police Detective Michael D. Thomas, a 52-year-old male, was fatally shot while stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Peoria Street and Montview Boulevard. He was driving his personal vehicle between police training centers at the time of the unprovoked attack. The single bullet struck him on his left side, and he was pronounced dead shortly after at the University of Colorado at Denver Hospital.
A suspect, identified as 27-year-old Brian Allen Washington, was apprehended at the scene with the help of a police officer, two Department of Corrections officers, and several citizens. Washington, who had an extensive criminal history and was wanted for another shooting that had occurred just days prior, was taken into custody, and a handgun was recovered.
Following his arrest, Brian Allen Washington was charged with first-degree murder and held without bond. An arrest affidavit later revealed that Washington had confessed to the shooting to another officer who had stopped to check on Detective Thomas. According to the affidavit, Washington approached the officer and stated, 'I shot him.' When asked to repeat himself, he said it again. He then made statements to the effect of being a federal agent. Washington was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 80 years in prison. Nearly two decades later, the case resurfaced when it was discovered that a retired detective involved in the investigation had stored case documents in his home, potentially impacting a pending appeal by Washington.
In a much earlier and still unresolved case, the body of 19-year-old Michael Franklin Thomas, a white male, was discovered on the morning of June 23, 1979, in Denver's Washington Park. A Denver Parks and Recreation employee noticed an individual in a sleeping bag and, upon closer inspection, saw a significant amount of blood around the person's head. Emergency services and the Denver Police Department responded to the scene and determined that Thomas had been shot to death. Despite the investigation, a suspect has never been identified in the decades since the homicide. The case remains a cold case, and the Denver Police Department continues to ask for anyone with information to come forward.
