Inset: Orest Schur (Aurora Police). Background: The street where Schur discovered teens allegedly trying to steal his car (Google Maps).
A sergeant from the Space Force, who fired at two teenagers as they fled after an alleged attempt to break into his vehicle, is now facing the possibility of spending the remainder of his life incarcerated.
In Adams County, Colorado, a judge handed down a 54-year prison sentence to Orest Schur on Friday, as announced by the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Schur received 36 years for second-degree murder and 18 years for attempted murder. The 29-year-old faced conviction on both accounts in June.
The incident took place after 11 p.m. on July 5, 2023, close to Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. Residents along East 59th Place’s 19400 block reported hearing a car alarm and sighting two individuals clad in black attempting to break into a Hyundai Elantra, according to a release from the Aurora Police Department the following day. Schur, who owned the Elantra, confronted the pair, who then hurriedly drove away in another vehicle suspected of being stolen.
Instead of contacting law enforcement, Schur armed himself and pursued the teenagers in his Elantra, as noted by the district attorney’s office. He discharged several bullets into the back of the moving vehicle, which eventually crashed a few blocks away. As the two teens fled on foot, Schur continued shooting at them, resulting in injuries to both, according to prosecutors.
Xavier Daniel Kirk, aged 14, was discovered unconscious nearby with gunshot wounds to his back and head. Despite being rushed to a local hospital, he was pronounced dead. The other teenager, aged 13 and driving the vehicle, sustained a gunshot to the back but managed to reach a nearby relative’s home and was later hospitalized and treated, surviving the incident.
Schur initially claimed that the teenagers had fired at him; however, a forensic investigation revealed no evidence of weapons or firearms other than Schur’s own. In total, he had discharged 11 shots.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Schur was a technical sergeant at the time assigned to Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora. His wife is said to have told authorities that her husband had weapons training and had served two tours in Afghanistan.
17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason was harsh in his assessment of Schur’s actions.
“This was vigilante violence at its worst and now a young man is dead,” Mason said. “The defendant took the law into his own hands, chasing down a fleeing vehicle and opening fire on its occupants. A 14-year-old boy will now never grow up because of the defendant’s actions. I’m grateful to the Aurora Police Department for their investigation and to my team at the DA’s Office for securing justice in this case.”
