Aurora police are looking for information concerning the shooting death of a 24-year-old Aurora man late Thursday night at an apartment complex on the city’s West Side.
Police responded to a report of gunfire around 11:40 p.m. and found Davarius D. Reese, 1200 block of North Glen Circle, on the front porch of an apartment in the 1300 block of Monomoy Street. He had a gunshot wound to the head, police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said. Reese was pronounced dead at the scene.
Destiny Johnson, 18, who identified herself as Reese’s girlfriend, said she was shocked by the news.
Johnson last saw him when he took her to work at McDonald’s on Lake Street about two hours before the shooting. “He dropped me off at 10 p.m.,” she said. After that, Reese allegedly went to his mother’s home on North Glen Circle to visit his young daughter and then headed over to Johnson’s apartment to spend the night.
Around 12:30 a.m. Johnson got a call from Reese’s sister. She wanted to know where her brother was. Someone had been shot, she said, and it might have been him.
“Right then and there I was instantly thinking it had to be him,” Johnson said. “They couldn’t find him. He wasn’t answering his phone. I was so nervous. I was praying it wasn’t him, that it couldn’t have been him.”
Johnson said that moment of hope was fleeting.
“Then, my cousin messaged me and said it was him. She said he was shot in the face and he died,” Johnson said Friday morning. “She saw him put in a body bag. He was dead.”
The news sent Johnson into shock, she said.
“I would never imagine it would be him that would get shot,” she said. “He wasn’t into it with anybody that I know of. I don’t get how it happened or why it happened.”
Johnson said she and Reese used to hang out with the people who live at that Monomoy address, and that could be the reason Reese was there.
“I don’t know if someone called him to come chill for a little bit” even though he had to be up at 6 a.m. to pick Johnson up from work, she said.
Ferrelli said the Monomoy Street area has had an uptick in gang activity and disturbances recently.
“We have seen an increase in activity in that general area over the past several months and have adjusted our resources in order to address it,” Ferrelli said.
As for the killing itself, Ferrelli said the department is doing everything it can to find the shooter.
“We’re dedicating every possible resource to finding out exactly what happened and in fact, have several theories as to what may have occurred,” Ferrelli said.
“So far we’ve canvassed the neighborhood twice and have talked with people that heard the gunshot, but unfortunately we haven’t located anyone who saw anything,” Ferrelli said. ” We’re hoping anyone with information will reach out to us or give Crime Stoppers a call. It’s important to underscore that we’re after information, not names, and anything said to the police can be done so anonymously.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Aurora police investigators at 630-256-5500 or Aurora Area Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and qualify for a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to any arrests.
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Tips can also be submitted through the Aurora Police Department’s free app available through iTunes, the Android Market or Amazon App Store. Search for “My Police Department,” find the Aurora police app and download.