On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., the family of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield met at the Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse, alongside attorneys, community members, and advocates, to address the federal civil rights complaint, the criminal proceedings, and what this moment means for the continuing pursuit of accountability in Aurora.
A year ago, Rajon Belt-Stubblefield lost his life during an encounter with Aurora Police Officer Matthew Neely. Rajon’s family has grieved and navigated a dismissive system since his death. They have asked many questions and demanded answers. They want more from the institution’s explanation than it’s an incident number, an investigation, or another Black life.
His family and the community have kept Rajon’s humanity at the center of a story. Due to this, a grand jury has indicted Officer Matthew Neely in connection with Rajon’s death. A 144-page federal civil rights complaint has been filed against Neely and the City of Aurora, opening another pathway through which Rajon’s family can seek truth, accountability, and justice.
However, this does not mean justice was achieved. We refuse to minimize what it means for a Black family to finally be able to get the opportunity to ask their questions before institutions with the authority to give them answers.
The filing not only asks the federal court to examine what Officer Neely did, but also what the city of Aurora knew and what systems were in place, how those systems functioned, and if the years of warnings and reform efforts have actually changed the conditions under which Black people are encountered by Aurora’s law enforcement.
Under a court-enforceable consent decree, due to findings concerning excessive force and racially biased policing, Aurora has had to make changes. Issues like force, racial disparities, supervision, accountability, early intervention, training, discipline, and organizational culture have become federal complaints before the court.
We can no longer ask if Aurora has changed; no, we must push harder and ask: Did Aurora transform, and will they be willing to change?
Reform is not only achieved through policies rewritten, trainings completed, reports submitted, or compliance benchmarks achieved. Change is experienced by impact, by encounters, when an officer has to make a decision, how supervisors make decisions before something goes wrong, when warning signs emerge, and if a Black person can go home.
When these are not accomplished, a consent decree cannot become a defense against further examination. Compliance cannot be demonstrated through paperwork. Through years of external investigations, internal reviews, citizen complaints, litigation, monitoring, and the consent-decree process, this information has been available to the City.
We cannot only examine the Aurora Police Department, but the entire ecosystem of accountability surrounding it, including City leadership and the relationship between the City and the Independent Monitor.
If Aurora had access to the warnings, the data, the policies, the experts, the monitoring, the consent decree, and the authority to act, why did those interventions not produce a different outcome for Rajon?
We have to be willing to look at the distance between compliance and transformation. We have to be bold enough to ask whether a process is not focused enough on whether Black people were actually experiencing a transformed institution, and whether transforming policing became too focused on measuring institutional compliance.
The Board of Directors of the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership has given a statement:
“There is something profoundly beautiful about Rajon’s family finally having the opportunity to witness justice work for them. For generations, our families have carried grief into systems that asked for our trust without always giving us reason to believe we would be seen, heard, or protected. Our hope is that Rajon’s family will not have to beg this system to recognize the value of his life. May they be heard, may the truth have room to breathe, and may accountability have room to find them. There is beauty in that possibility, and there is power in a community standing close enough to witness it.”
— Board of Directors, Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership
We know that an indictment is not a conviction, and that filing a civil complaint is not winning a civil case. It is now the responsibility of the courts to determine the matters before them.
We do not have to be silent. We don’t have to surrender our questions. Rajon’s family does not have to soften their grief. This community does not have to abandon its expectation of accountability. It requires the process to work fully, fairly, transparently, and without fear or favor.
