“Please let this family have some peace and let us get the answers we need to bring closure in this case,” an Aurora resident whose son was shot to death pleaded.

Aurora investigators are asking for the public’s help in finding the person responsible for fatally shooting 13-year-old Phoenix Day in late March. 

The shooting happened at the Town Center at Aurora mall at 14300 E. Alameda Way just after 8 p.m. on March 25, according to Aurora police. 

Responding officers were working off-duty at the mall when they were alerted to a fight involving a group of teenagers near the food court, Aurora police agent Nicholas Lesnansky said at a Friday press conference.

While officers responded, they were notified of shots fired outside of Dillard’s just before 8 p.m. and “responded in moments,” finding Day with two gunshot wounds, Lesnansky said.

An officer did CPR on Day until paramedics arrived to transport him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about 8:24 p.m.

Investigators found that Day and a group of friends he was with were involved in a shouting match with another group of teens just before the shooting.

The two groups left the mall with the intention to fight in the movie theater parking lot across the street when Day was shot twice by an unknown assailant, Lesnansky said. 

Since then, investigators have reviewed more than 100 hours of video surveillance footage, conducted interviews with shoppers and other teens involved in the two groups and executed “numerous” search warrants. None of the efforts yielded a suspect identification.

Police have sorted through numerous calls the night of the shooting and have developed “quite a few” possible suspect descriptions, but all of them were consistent in that they believed the suspect to be a Black teenage male, according to police.

“We do know that there are numerous potential witnesses who may have information about the homicide that have not been identified and spoken to by detectives,” Lesnansky said. “We’re not going to rest and will continue to investigate this case.”

Day’s mother, Tabatha Denney, referred to her son as her “best friend,” saying he had a lot of challenges in his life, but was never held back by them.

Day moved to Colorado 13 months before his death to “have a better life” and was excited to “finally be home with mom,” Denney said. 

“Phoenix was working really hard with a mentor who works with at-risk youth, we just needed more time,” Denney said. “Phoenix was making big changes we were so proud of him.”

Denney pleaded for anyone with information who saw her son on the day he died or know anything about what happened to reach out to police. 

“No details are too small,” Denney said. “No mother should feel the way I’ve felt the past three months.”

Due to the large crime scene area and many people at the mall on the Saturday of Day’s death, locating all of the witnesses and those who may have small, but useful, bits of information has been difficult, police said. 

Aurora Police Department spokesperson Sydney Edwards said officials have not determined if the two groups involved in the altercation were gang-related. 

Day’s death is part of a larger crisis across the county where police are seeing more and more youth involved in crime and violence, police said. 

“We are seeing an uptick in youth involved in crime in our area,” Edwards said. “It just seems that this is happening too often right now.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867 . Crime Stoppers is offering a $4,000 reward for information on the homicide.