2 Colorado juveniles shot on basketball court in Aurora

The Aurora Police Department says four juveniles were detained after two boys — 12 and 14 years old — were shot at a basketball court between East Kentucky Place and East Ford Avenue.

APD says both victims are males and were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Responding officers said they located and detained at least four juveniles who are believed to be involved.

CBS News Colorado’s crews captured a tense scene as a SWAT team arrived in an armored truck and pushed crime scene tape further back from an apartment building. SWAT officers and at least one police K9 entered the building after knocking down the door of that apartment unit.

Officers believe that the victims knew the suspects. 

Neighbors looked on from street corners and apartment balconies.

“It’s sad. It worries me. We were talking about going to the park today, but we’re moving so we went to go look at an apartment,” said neighborhood resident Deana Campbell. 

She has lived here three and a half years and says things have gotten worse. They’ll be living somewhere else soon. She says she’s seen adults fighting and hurting each other and arguing over what their kids have done to each other. 

“They don’t teach their kids manners or to behave. I mean the kids over here they just roam around doing whatever they want,” she said.

She also wonders where are the guns coming from.

“How do they even have these guns to begin with?” she asked.

It worries Jason McBride too, secondary youth violence prevention supervisor at the Struggle of Love Foundation.

He is concerned about the prevalence of guns, many of which he believes are ghost guns as the perpetrators and victims become younger and younger.

“The trend seems to be younger and younger and younger people being involved in these things. So when we talk about youth violence in the city we have to start talking about early teens,” he said. 

McBride sees them at their best and at some of their worst moments. His concern is a lack of options and examples.

“That’s the incredibly frustrating part of this is that some of these young people are amazingly talented and smart, and have nothing to do and are just falling under the wrong influences. And so we really have to work together as a community to find these young people, you know, employment or other resources that will get them involved in something positive,” he said. 

The summer ahead concerns him because of the lack of positive examples and the negativity they are finding online.

“Sometimes they’re not always the most positive examples to follow. So you know, these kids are just kids, and they’re soaking up all these negative influences. They’re exposed to all these things through social media and it’s just making a youth violence problem spin out of control in this city,” he said. 

APD also says a weapon and numerous shell casings were located on the scene and the circumstances of what led up to the shooting are under investigation.

Neighbors looked on from street corners and apartment balconies. The scene was active for hours and initially spanned several blocks, generally around East Kentucky Place, South Troy Street and East Ford Avenue.