The police officers involved in the fatal 2025 shooting of Christopher Lepe, 19, of Aurora, will not face criminal charges in connection with the incident, the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office said on Friday.
The State’s Attorney’s Office’s independent review determined that the two Aurora police officers who fired shots at 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 a news release Friday from the office.
According to an investigation by the Fox Valley Major Crimes Task Force, previously known as the Kane County Major Crimes Task Force, on March 19, 2025, at around 1:30 a.m., a Geneva police officer had located a suspicious vehicle on the 1500 block of South Randall Road believed to be connected to reports of windows being shot by a BB gun in Geneva, Aurora, North Aurora and St. Charles, the news release said.
The officer said he found Lepe with an open bottle of alcohol in the vehicle, the news release from the State’s Attorney’s Office said, and ordered him to exit the vehicle. The officer attempted to grasp the steering wheel and depress the brake when Lepe moved to drive away, officials said. The officer was flung from the vehicle, according to the office, and suffered a kneecap fracture.
Geneva police then reported Lepe’s vehicle information to local dispatchers, per the State’s Attorney’s Office, and Aurora police responded, ultimately locating Lepe and attempting to pull him over using sirens and emergency lights, officials said. When he did not pull over, a vehicle pursuit involving Aurora police and Kane County Sheriff’s Office units followed, per the investigation into the incident.
The pursuit ended through the use of spike strips to stop the vehicle at the intersection of Broadway and Hazel Avenue in Aurora, the release said.
As officers attempted to contact the driver of the car, police said the driver displayed a weapon, which the State’s Attorney’s Office said “appeared to be an AR-15-style rifle,” but was later discovered to be an air gun.
Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, in the release, said that the officers had “no way of knowing the realistic-looking rifle … was not real.” According to the release, Lepe pointed it up, then down, then at an Aurora police officer, the task force’s investigation alleges, and two Aurora officers then fired several rounds, officials said. Lepe was struck multiple times, the release said.
Officers on the scene provided medical aid as soon as they determined Lepe was no longer a danger, the State’s Attorney’s Office said in the release. He was then taken to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The Kane County Coroner’s Office determined the cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds, and toxicology reports showed that Lepe had a blood alcohol concentration of .125 and cannabis present in his system, the release said.
Audio and video footage from the fatal shooting was released a week after the incident.
The incident was required by state law to be independently investigated and then reviewed by the State’s Attorney’s Office, according to Friday’s news release.
It was ultimately determined that there was “no evidence or indication that any police officer committed any unlawful acts,” the news release from the State’s Attorney’s Office stated. The Aurora officers had “reasonable belief that their use of force was necessary to protect themselves and others from great harm,” Mosser said, and the sheriff’s deputies did not fire their weapons during the incident.
The investigation is now closed, per the State’s Attorney’s Office.
In a statement on Facebook Friday, Aurora Police Department officials said they “(understand) the community’s interest surrounding incidents of this nature” and “remain committed to serving Aurora with professionalism, fairness and accountability.”
