Video: Aurora pastor gets shot, police want help finding gunmen

AURORA, Colo. — An Aurora pastor becomes victim to the same violence he preaches against. Two men shot the 51-year-old in a parking lot July 4.

It happened outside the Casa Del Espana Apartments on Nome St. and Colfax about 9:45 p.m.

“It wasn’t in God’s time for my dad to go up yet. He still has a lot of unfinished business up here to do,” says the victim’s 23-year-old son, Jose Gomez Jr.

He says god had a hand in saving the life of his dad–a pastor.

Surveillance video shows his father pull into the parking lot of the apartments.

Twenty seconds later, two men walk into the picture. They stop and wait. Then, one walks up to the door, followed by the other.

The victim says they demand his keys and point a gun at his heart.

That’s when the pastor says he asked God what he should do. He grabs the suspect’s hand and they struggle.

“All of a sudden, I just heard yelling. I looked through the window and saw my dad, pretty much on the ground,” says Gomez Jr.

A suspect pulls the pastor out of the truck and both suspects beat him–one hitting the pastor in the head with a gun. He falls to the ground.

One suspect then stands over him and shoots.

A bullet goes clean through the pastor’s thigh.

He’s able to run to the side of his truck as the suspects run away.

Gomez Jr. gives chase.

“I wasn’t thinking. I was just chasing after ‘em. I was blinded to see my dad thrown on the ground like that. Eventually I lost them,” he says.

Now police hope you’ll help find them and get them off the streets.

“It’s very disturbing. Here we have a pastor who works with the youth in the community, works to do anti-gang, anti-violence work with our youth,” says Aurora Police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.

The pastor’s immigrant neighbors agree.

“Es un pastor. Es una buena gente,” says Aeelena Aguilar, in Spanish, that Gomez is a pastor and a good person.

Another, Isabel Mireles, says her daughter goes to church with Gomez at God Loves Everyone Christian Church, off Colfax and Peoria.

The family moved here from south central Los Angeles 12 years ago to get away from the danger.

“We saw violence. We saw everything there. We saw people getting killed,” says Gomez Jr.

But it found them in aurora, in a parking lot, at the hand of two thugs with seemingly no value for life.

“Definitely need to get these two off the street,” says Carlson.

One suspect is described as Hispanic, in his late teens to early 20’s, 5’11”, 180 lbs., and short hair. The other is also Hispanic, but only described as skinny.

The Aurora Police Reward Fund is offering up to $5,000 and Crime Stoppers up to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.