After nearly two weeks on the run since his escape from the ICE facility on March 18, Geilond Vido-Romero was arrested during an RTD bus ride along East Colfax Avenue on April 1. The bus's security footage, published by 9NEWS on Tuesday, April 22, shows a group of about five United States Marshals clad in tactical vests with "Police" written on them, surprising a bus full of people as they swiftly file in and corner Vido-Romero.
The U.S. Marshals appear quickly, and Vido-Romero seems caught off guard. A plainclothes officer sitting in front of Vido-Romero can be seen putting on a badge right before the Marshals come on. The other couple dozen passengers on the bus also look confused or alarmed as they move grocery bags and shuffle out of the way of the Marshals pushing past them. No one shies away from turning their head to watch the scene unfold, however.
Before Vido-Romero was set to be deported to Venezuela, he and fellow detainee Joel Gonzalez-Gonzalez from Mexico escaped from the ICE facility during a nighttime power outage. The two were able to leave through an unlocked door that failed to relock during the outage and then they climbed over the outside fencing, according to the City of Aurora.
The facility is managed by the GEO Group, an international private prison company, and both ICE and GEO officials guard its detainees. Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said during a March 20 press conference that ICE and GEO officials noticed the two were missing during an emergency headcount but waited four to five hours to call local authorities for help. Aurora Police has an agreement with ICE that it only has to help find its detention facility fugitives if the escape is reported within fifteen minutes.
Gonzalez-Gonzalez only lasted a few days on the run. He was captured on March 21, only three days after escaping, after an Adams County sheriff's deputy noticed Gonzalez-Gonzalez as he was acting suspiciously around a closed car wash, according to 9NEWS.
Neither Gonzalez-Gonazlez nor Vido-Romero were caught far from the Aurora ICE GEO facility, which is at 3130 North Oakland Street in the Adams County portion of Aurora.
The footage of Vido-Romero's arrest shows that a woman who was sitting next to him on the bus was also arrested, but there has been no reported reason why.
ICE has yet to comment on the arrest, and the GEO Group declines to comment to Westword.
