The Aurora police officer who shot and killed a 37-year-old Black man during a 2025 traffic stop was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday, according to newly unsealed court records.
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Matthew Neely, 54, shot and killed Rajon Belt-Stubblefield during a traffic stop in Aurora on Aug. 30, 2025, after the officer tried to pull Belt-Stubblefield over for speeding and a possible DUI near East Sixth Avenue and Sable Boulevard around 7:30 p.m. that night.
Belt-Stubblefield did not pull over and instead drove away. He rear-ended one car before crossing a median and hitting a second vehicle, according to the indictment. He crashed at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Billings Street.
Neely pulled up on the crash and pointed his gun at Belt-Stubblefield. He ordered the man not to get out of the vehicle. Belt-Stubblefield did not follow the officer’s order, according to the indictment. Instead, he appeared to be reaching down toward the floorboard of his vehicle. Belt-Stubblefield then exited the car and told Neely, “Don’t shoot me,” according to the indictment.
Neely approached Belt-Stubblefield with his gun still in his right hand. He grabbed Belt-Stubblefield’s upper body with his left hand, according to the indictment. Belt-Stubblefield then threw a gun to the ground nearby. Neely was not aware the man had a gun until Belt-Stubblefield threw it into the grass, according to the indictment.
The officer then “engaged physically” with Belt-Stubblefield, according to the indictment. The officer fell to the ground, and Belt-Stubblefield got up and walked away. Neely stood, pointed his gun at Belt-Stubblefield and demanded he get on the ground.
“I’ll shoot you,” Neely told the man, according to the indictment. The officer then spent 7 seconds trying to holster his gun in order to use a less-lethal weapon, but he was not able to get his gun holstered, according to the indictment. He was not carrying a Taser but did have a baton and pepper spray.
Belt-Stubblefield’s son, Zion Murphy, who had been driving in a separate vehicle, stood nearby during this exchange, according to the indictment. Belt-Stubblefield several times asked his son to get the gun in the grass and remove it from the scene, according to the indictment.
Belt-Stubblefield, with his back to the officer, then turned toward the area where he’d earlier thrown the gun, according to the indictment. The officer punched Belt-Stubblefield in the face.
“After this strike, Mr. Belt-Stubblefield turned around towards defendant and raised both fists in front of him and asked the defendant, ‘Are you ready for this? I’m ready for this,’ and started walking towards the defendant in a ‘boxer’s stance,’” the indictment reads.
The officer walked backwards as Belt-Stubblefield walked toward him. He did not tell Belt-Stubblefield he was under arrest or warn him that he would shoot him, “because he wanted to maintain an ‘element of surprise,’” the indictment states. Belt-Stubblefield did not threaten the officer or try to retrieve the gun in the grass.
Neely then shot Belt-Stubblefield twice in the chest and once in the head, killing the man. He later said he did so because he feared getting into a fight with Belt-Stubblefield, because he felt “he would lose,” according to the indictment.
“Defendant stated he fired the first two shots in attempt to ‘stop the threat,’” the indictment reads. “He stated they appeared to have no effect, so he made the decision to ‘change the target.’ He stated he chose to fire the next round at Mr. Belt-Stubblefield’s head because of that decision.”
The indictment notes that while Neely called for backup, he did not report on the radio that Belt-Stubblefield had eluded the traffic stop and crashed, that he was holding the man at gunpoint, that Belt-Stubblefield had thrown a gun down or that Belt-Stubblefield was not listening to the officer.
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Aurora police Chief Todd Chamberlain defended the officer immediately after the killing and placed blame on Belt-Stubblefield. In a statement Monday, the chief said he respects the judicial process and that it would be inappropriate for him to comment “on the merits of the case.”
“I will say this: Police officers are routinely called on to address — sometimes in seconds — dangerous and rapidly evolving situations they did not create,” he said. “I am confident that all the facts will be fully examined through due process. As with any case, these filing charges are not a determination of guilt.”
The killing drew national attention, and prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump visited with Belt-Stubblefield’s widow and condemned the fatal shooting. The family in February said they were pursuing a lawsuit against the police department.
Milo Schwab, an attorney representing Belt-Stubblefield’s family in their civil action, said Monday that the grand jury indictment is an example of “the process working.”
“District Attorney (Amy) Padden showed great courage in trusting a grand jury, trusting the community to make the decision,” he said. “And my hope is that we see this happen more and more. That instead of one DA making a decision on whether an officer committed a crime, we put it in the hands of — and trust — the community. That is what happened here. This is the beginning, the first important step on that path toward accountability.”
Padden said in a brief news conference Monday that she presented the case to a grand jury after a months-long investigation by the 18th Judicial District’s Critical Incident Response Team, and that she consulted with police use-of-force experts before taking the case to the grand jury.
“The grand jury determined there was probable cause to support these criminal charges,” she said.
Neely is on unpaid administrative leave from the Aurora Police Department, spokeswoman Gabby Easterwood said. The officer turned himself in over the weekend and was released on a $200,000 bail, Padden said. He is next due in court on Aug. 17.
The Aurora Police Department has a history of violence against Black people.
The police department entered into a consent decree — court-ordered reforms overseen by an independent monitor — after the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after Aurora police officers violently restrained him and paramedics injected him with a too-large dose of a powerful sedative.
McClain’s death was part of a pattern of racial bias and excessive force within the Aurora Police Department, state officials later found.
The police department paid $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by McClain’s family. Five first responders faced criminal charges in McClain’s death; three were convicted, including two paramedics and an Aurora police officer. The Colorado Court of Appeals overturned the paramedics’ convictions in June.
The Aurora Police Department has in recent years also paid out $1.9 million to settle a lawsuit after officers in 2020 forced Black girls to lie on the ground when they mistook the vehicle the girls were in as stolen.
The department is also facing lawsuits over the killing of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed during an arrest in 2024, and was criticized in 2023 when an officer shot and killed a 14-year-old Black boy who ran from police while carrying a pellet gun. Jor’Dell Richardson was lying face up on the ground with two officers restraining at least one of his hands when another officer shot him in the stomach.
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