Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser has announced hat her office will not be filing criminal charges against Aurora police officers involved in the March 19, 2025, death of 19-year-old Aurora resident Christopher Lepe. The State’s Attorney’s independent review of the incident determined that officers who shot Lepe had the reasonable belief that the deadly force they employed was necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to themselves and others.
According to the investigation, on March 19, 2025, at approximately 1:30am, a Geneva police officer located a suspicious vehicle on the 1500 block of South Randall Road that he believed was connected to reports of windows being shot by a BB gun in Geneva, Aurora, North Aurora and St. Charles.
In the vehicle, the officer found Lepe with an open bottle of alcohol and exhibiting slurred speech. The officer ordered Lepe to exit the vehicle, and when Lepe moved to drive away, the officer attempted to grasp the steering wheel and depress the brake pedal. Lepe took off, and the officer was flung from the vehicle, suffering a complete fracture to his kneecap.
Geneva police reported Lepe’s vehicle information to Tri-Com, Kane-Com, and the Aurora Police Department Dispatch. Aurora police soon located Lepe and attempted to pull him over using sirens and emergency lights. When Lepe did not pull over, a vehicle pursuit ensued that involved Aurora police and Kane County Sheriff’s Office units.
The pursuit ended through the use of spike strips at the intersection of Broadway and Hazel Avenue in Aurora. Four marked squad cars—two Aurora and two Kane County Sheriff’s—surrounded Lepe’s car, and the officers and deputies exited their vehicles.
Verbal commands were given to Lepe to put his hands up and get on the ground. Lepe emerged from his car brandishing what appeared to be an AR-15 style rifle in his right hand. The rifle was later discovered to be an air gun.
Lepe pointed the rifle up, then down, then directly at an Aurora police officer. Two Aurora officers fired several rounds from their weapons, and Lepe was struck multiple times.
Eventually, a K-9 was released to pull Lepe out of the car, and officers on scene provided medical aid as soon as they determined Lepe was no longer a danger. Lepe was transported to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, where he was pronounced dead.
A postmortem examination was performed by the Kane County Coroner’s Office. The cause of death was ascribed to be from multiple gunshot wounds. Toxicology reports showed that Lepe had a blood alcohol concentrate of .125 and the presence of cannabis in his system.
“In conducting this review, my office thoroughly examined all available body-worn camera footage, squad vehicle camera footage, and other evidence,” Mosser said. “It is clear to me that the officers here had reasonable belief that their use of force was necessary to protect themselves and others from great harm. The officers had no way of knowing the realistic-looking rifle Mr. Lepe armed himself with and pointed at them was not real. My condolences go out to his family for their tragic loss.”
