A cherished community garden and its beehive became collateral damage in a man’s rampage through local businesses and neighborhoods. Despite persistent calls from residents to the police, it took hours before officers responded—only arriving after the man required medical care.
On August 8, in Aurora, Colorado, 42-year-old Worku Woldemariam allegedly wreaked havoc on an urban garden located on E 16th Avenue. This incident followed accusations of him vandalizing several other venues, including a sheriff’s office, a local market, a Starbucks, and an ice cream shop over multiple days.
Numerous residents reported the actions of Woldemariam, who is known for his extensive criminal record, to the authorities. However, as echoed by Denver7 News, these calls to emergency services seemingly went unanswered for hours.
On the day of the garden’s destruction, residents began alerting law enforcement at about 1 p.m., yet officers did not reach the scene until close to 4 p.m., according to the report.
During the long wait for police, Woldemariam allegedly used rocks to obliterate beehives and tore out crops in the garden, while distressed community members had no choice but to watch the chaos unfold.
‘He was out here with the rock, just breaking the cinder blocks like that for hours,’ volunteer Matthew King told the outlet.
Residents said it was only after Woldemariam passed out in the garden he had allegedly just demolished that several fire trucks and police officers arrived.
He was arrested and taken to the Adams County Jail.
Worku Woldemariam, 42, allegedly ripped apart an urban garden on E 16th Avenue in Aurora, Colorado on August 8
The day he allegedly destroyed the garden, locals reported Woldemariam around 1pm; however, officers were not dispatched until nearly 4pm, according to Denver7
Before he was arrested, a 911 dispatcher could be heard in audio obtained from Broadcastify and cited by the outlet reporting active property damage.
‘We have multiple callers who state that he was damaging property and throwing rocks,’ the dispatcher said.
The lengthy response time prompted Aurora Mayor Pro Tem Alison Coombs to share her concerns.
‘I’m very concerned that active, in-progress threats and property destruction are considered low-acuity calls that don’t merit an immediate response,’ Coombs said.
Woldemariam had been arrested five days earlier on criminal mischief allegations in Douglas County in a separate incident, Denver7 reported.
His alleged vandalism spree began on July 27, when he was accused of ripping down American and Colorado flags outside the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office substation, according to CBS News.
The following day, he was accused of entering Harar Market in Aurora and using a rock to smash artwork inside the shop.
Market owner Wend Wesen told the outlet that he no longer feels safe.
‘I hear like a bump, like a big bump sounding. I’m like, ‘What happened?’ And when I go out, he was dragging this picture right here, and he was dragging all the way outside, and he was hitting with a big stone,’ Wesen said.
Woldemariam was also accused of vandalizing a sheriff’s office, a local market, a Starbucks, and an ice cream shop over several days. He is allegedly pictured inside Harar Market, where the owner said the man destroyed paintings of Jesus
The suspect was also accused of hurling rocks through the window of a Starbucks
Two days after he was released from jail, Woldemariam allegedly threw rocks through the windows of Nugg’s Ice Cream on Colfax
‘And I was like, ‘What are you doing, sir?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t like him. I don’t like him,’ and he kept hitting.’
Wesen said the suspect destroyed multiple Jesus posters.
‘It’s not safe anymore,’ Wesen said. ‘That’s why I was upset.’
The shop owner said police did not arrive until the next day, when Woldemariam happened to return to the store and allegedly attempt to destroy more artwork.
Police caught him but did not arrest him. Instead, he was issued a summons for criminal mischief, according to the outlet.
The alleged rampage continued on August 3, when the Aurora Police Department said he threw a rock through the window of a Starbucks.
A warrant was issued for his arrest that day, but he was taken into custody by Douglas County authorities in connection with the flag incident.
However, he was released on bond two days later.
Two days after his release, he allegedly threw rocks through the windows of Nugg’s Ice Cream on Colfax.
The alleged incident ultimately led to his most recent arrest after he was accused of destroying the urban garden.
Woldemariam currently faces three criminal mischief cases in Colorado, according to the outlet.
According to court records, he was found incompetent to stand trial in 2013 on similar charges he faced in Denver. That case was later dismissed, CBS reported.
In a 2014 assault case in Virginia, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
According to the outlet, Woldemariam remains in custody.
The criticism from locals comes years after the Aurora Police Department made national headlines in connection with the death of Elijah McClain.
Woldemariam pictured allegedly throwing rocks through the window of the ice cream parlor
McClain, a 23-year-old black man, went into cardiac arrest following his run-in with police in Aurora on August 24, 2019, and died in a hospital six days later.
McClain was walking home from a corner store with an iced tea in his hand on August 24, 2019, when he was stopped by police officers responding to a 911 call about a man in a ski mask who was waving his arms in the air.
McClain’s family said he wore the ski mask because anemia made him unusually susceptible to the cold, and McClain was apparently listening to music on headphones and dancing as he walked – also the reason, he explained to cops, that he did not initially comply with their verbal commands.
When the paramedics arrived, they reportedly injected McClain with ketamine, a hallucinogenic anesthetic, and seven minutes later he went into cardiac arrest.
He died at the hospital six days later.
A subsequent internal investigation by Aurora Police found that the cops had no reasonable grounds to stop him.
Aurora police officer Randy Roedema was convicted of homicide and third degree assault and two other officers, Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt, were acquitted.
Elijah McClain was fatally injured while being arrested in Aurora, Colorado, in August 2019. He died days later of his injuries
Footage from 2024 captured the moment an armed Venezuelan gang seized control of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado
Two Denver-area paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
Aurora has also been riddled with Tren de Aragua (TdA) gangsters, a problem the city’s police department had previously denied in the past.
Members of TdA, as the South American mob is known to federal authorities, seeped into the US in recent years, hidden among the 1 million Venezuelans who have arrived in the US under the Biden Administration.
TdA had taken over at least three apartment buildings in Aurora in 2024, exploiting and terrorizing their migrant neighbors.
The gang has been described as the ‘epitome of evil’ and is best known in their homeland for sex trafficking girls and women and exploiting their fellow countrymen, have now set up strongholds in Denver, New York, Miami, El Paso and Dallas.
Since arriving in the United States, TdA is accused of taking part in shootings, shake-downs of other migrants who had been told to pay rent to the gang instead of the property, beatings, and robberies in Colorado.