After the firing of Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson last week prompted an uproar among her supporters, a group gathered Monday on the steps of City Hall to decry the decision as a politically motivated vendetta against a woman who they say focused on building trust in the community and was willing to make decisions about discipline unpopular among officers.

“It is a day of solace. I know lives have not been lost, but the flags should be hanging low,” said Maisha Fields, the daughter of state Sen. Rhonda Fields, a Democrat from Aurora.

Fields’ brother and his fiancee were fatally shot and killed. Wilson’s supporters said she struck a necessary balance between solving crime, equitable policing of marginalized people, supporting officers and holding them accountable.

Wilson was appointed interim chief in early 2020 after well over 20 years with the department, and City Council removed the interim tag in August of that year. She took the helm of a department roiling with controversy because of 23-year-old Elijah McClain’s death during a police stop in 2019 during which he was forcefully subdued and injected with ketamine by paramedics.

City Manager Jim Twombly fired Wilson last week. Wilson’s supporters have characterized the move as the culmination of a coordinated effort by a new conservative majority on City Council.

Aurora police chief Vanessa Wilson fired

Twombly did not pinpoint any single catalyst that drove his decision, instead referring generally to losing confidence in her leadership. He denied she was fired because of a report that found a backlog of thousands of crime reports awaiting processing in the Police Department’s records section, news of which broke the day before the city announced Wilson’s firing.

Twombly said Wilson prioritized community involvement, but suggested she did not effectively manage the department’s operations and engage with her officers.

Wilson did not disparage Twombly directly, calling him a “good man” who allowed her to act on what she believed were the right things to do. But she disavowed his public reasoning for firing her because he had lost confidence in her “overall leadership” and “overall management.”

“To that I say, sir, you’re very wrong,” she said.

During her tenure, Wilson made a practice of publicly announcing decisions to discipline officers, especially in cases of excessive force. A few months after she took on the role of interim chief, she fired three officers for participating in a photo appearing to mock McClain’s death.

Five officers and Aurora Fire Rescue workers have since been criminally charged in connection with his death.

Wilson also held a news conference, anticipating public outcry, about an incident last summer in which an officer pistol-whipped and choked an unarmed Black man who was stopped for trespassing. The officer resigned before the internal investigation of the incident was finished, but the department continued the investigation.

Aurora police Sgt. Paul Poole on Monday decried Wilson’s firing, saying he wouldn’t be surprised if he faces retaliation for doing so. He also read a statement from an anonymous officer of color, who worries that ousting Wilson will mean the Police Department returns to a system that protects unethical officers.

One of Aurora’s two police unions said in a statement last week that it supports Wilson’s termination. The Aurora Police Association wrote: “We look forward to working closely with a new incoming administration, prioritizing the morale of the officers, leadership of the Administration and service to the citizens of Aurora. We are committed to working with the incoming administration, City Administration, and City Council, to rebuild our police department in order to recruit and retain officers to ensure our city and neighborhoods are a safe place to work and live.”

Wilson also took a conciliatory tone when Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office announced a state consent decree to mandate reform after an investigation found patterns of excessive force and racially biased policing in the Aurora Police Department. Wilson publicly assured officers the department was already implementing changes with an eye toward fixing issues laid out in the report with a plan titled “A New Way,” calling the decree “nothing to be afraid of.”

Aurora’s City Council adopted the consent decree. The agreement is enforceable in court.

Late last year, Wilson fired Doug Wilkinson, the president of the Aurora Police Association, for an email he sent to members disparaging the consent decree as designed to “replace as many of the department’s white males as possible with as many women and minorities.”

Former Aurora Councilwoman Debi Hunter Holen called Wilson “a woman who not only cares about the community, but a woman who also loves her staff and her officers so much that she was willing to clean house of those who broke their code of conduct to cause harm.”

Ward Four Councilman Juan Marcano called the Aurora Police Department an agency “at war with itself, undermining someone who … who stepped up at a time where our community was grieving and furious, demanding change.”

Wilson declined to say whether she will file a lawsuit challenging her firing. She also did not give specifics on her possible next career steps, saying only that she will “continue to look at ways that serve this community as well as law enforcement somewhere in the future.”

Rumors that Wilson might quit began swirling a few weeks before she was fired with reports Twombly had proposed a plan for her resignation. Wilson vehemently denied the reports at the time and said Monday that she refused to accept a resignation when she believes politics motivated her firing.

“And I have to stand up for myself,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t going to go quietly into the night. … There should not be partisan politics in public safety.”

But she asked people to focus on continuing to move the Police Department forward and creating a culture of holding officers accountable while supporting those who are committed to ethical service.

“This police department right now has men and women out there answering calls for service. They took this oath not because of me, but because of what’s in their hearts.”