ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The affidavit of a man accused of shooting three people in Aurora in June is now unsealed.
Austin Benson, 35, faces four counts of attempted murder, six counts of first-degree assault, and 13 other charges in shootings that wounded three people in Aurora’s Cherry Creek Racquet Club neighborhood on June 27.
The unsealed affidavit, written by an Aurora Police Department officer, states that the officers on the scene for the June 27 shootings spoke to Benson's family members, who said he was currently taking medication for hallucinations and post traumatic stress disorder.
Benson is accused of shooting Aryn Johnson, 49, while she was inside her car with her daughter, Ashley McWashington, next to her around 9:20 p.m. on June 27 in the 4400 block of South Eagle Circle.
Her mother, Sue Johnson, told 9NEWS Investigates that she suffered gunshot wounds to the stomach, hand and arm, and that bullet fragments caused multiple injuries.
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After shooting Johnson, according to the affidavit, Benson then stared into the car, not saying a word, and walked away. Relatives of McWashington and Johnson walked out the house after Benson walked away, and began helping Johnson.
At some point, Benson came back and said something like, "Oh Shit, I am sorry. You aren’t the only ones, I shot multiple people before this," before getting back in his car and driving away, according to the affidavit.
During an interview with police, McWashington stated that Benson looked like "he wasn't there." Johnson's son said before his mother and sister arrived, Benson told him that people were "trying to get him" after he crashed his truck into a car, according to the affidavit.
Following that shooting, the affidavit says, Benson drove to the area of South Crystal Way and East Tufts Place and shot Kenneth Lottes, 36, and Kimberly Lottes, 64, as they checked on Benson in his car. The mother and son "both believed the driver was having a medical episode" after Benson was driving erratically and drove up on a curb after Kenneth Lottes tried to avoid a collision with Benson, according to the affidavit.
Kenneth Lottes suffered a gunshot wound to his elbow that shattered it. It's likely he may never regain full use of it. His mother, Kimberly Lottes, suffered a graze wound to her arm, had a bullet lodged in her shoulder and a fragment and shrapnel pierced her hand.
From Sept. 3: Mother and son saw a driver they thought needed help, and next thing they knew, the driver started shooting
Before the shooting on June 27, Benson was charged in a similar incident on July 2, 2018, along Rampart Range Road in Douglas County. Prosecutors alleged that Benson shot at and threatened multiple people. It ended when a retired police officer, camping with his wife, grabbed his own gun and shot Benson multiple times, seriously wounding him.
A Douglas County judge decided last October that Benson wasn’t mentally competent to stand trial for the 2018 shooting, dismissing the attempted murder charges. The judge said there was no hope Benson would be competent in the “reasonably foreseeable future."
According to law enforcement, the gun in both cases was an AK-47-style semiautomatic rifle. That same gun from the 2018 shooting was returned to the suspect’s wife in January. Law enforcement sources confirmed the same gun was used in the June 27 shooting.
Benson is due back in court on Tuesday.
This article includes reporting from Kevin Vaughan, Janet Oravetz and Nate Lynn.