Cindy Romero joins Ryan for the full hour to discuss her harrowing tale of surviving as a resident of Lowry Apartments, a complex overtaken by members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Her viral video of armed gang members made national news and landed her an interview with Dr. Phil.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I lived at the edge of lowry apartments for four years.
I was pushed out and tortured over the course of
a year to give up my apartment. At first, it
started with people renting the apartments. We thought legitimately, they're
all migrants from Venezuela, different parts of Venezuela. It started
to be more and more younger males standing around. They
(00:23):
all have bags or purses large enough to carry a gun.
Then they stopped trying to hide carrying the guns. They
would open carry them and keep them in their waistband.
I would keep increasing my security, so I would get
more and more cameras, more and more weapons inside my home.
We'd call the police over and over again, and then
(00:44):
they would finally call us back and just tell us
that they weren't coming. They didn't come until the shootout.
We heard yelling outside. We heard someone say shut your
mouth in Spanish, and then we heard gunfire. After they
discovered the bullet hole in my vehicle of my husband's vehicle,
they found a trail of blood and they were able
(01:04):
to follow it to a building that was maybe three
buildings away from mine. It turns out the guy that
they shot was the guy who used to live diagonally
across from me. If armed men have guns in your
building and they're changing the locks, that's a takeover. I
(01:24):
don't care what your definition. Is.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A very important edition of Ryan Schuling Live coming right
at you, and that was the intro to Doctor Phil
Prime Time, and the episode that you heard featured the
hero that joined us now live in studio for the
full hour, and that is Cindy Romero. Of course, she
is the one who took the video that broke the Internet,
that went viral, that gave us the visuals to the
(01:49):
story that we were being told that John Fabricatory and
Daniel Durinsky had talked about with me well in advance
of all of these things that happened in the aftermath
of that video. That was the turning point. And the
hero of this story is Cindy Rameril.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
She joined us now. Cindy, thank you so much for
being with me.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Now, when you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Hear that the details compressed like that for your appearance
on Doctor Phil, what's the first thing that comes to
your mind.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm still terrified. Not even hearing about it takes me
right back. It wasn't that long ago. It was. It's
so surreal that it doesn't even seem like it happened.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Now, take us back, if you would, to the first
time that you suspected something, because what you're describing and
talking about there is what you noticed kind of in
real time that followed after that fact. But there had
to be an initial inflection point in which you were like,
(02:50):
something's not right here, something's up.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
When was that and what did you notice?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
When the police stopped answering the calls a non emergency number,
we would sit on hold for forty five minutes. The
dispatchers recognized my name and my address and my voice
when they stopped coming, and I started getting calls back
hours later saying I'm sorry we couldn't come, or I'm sorry.
(03:18):
By the time we showed up, there was nobody out there.
Just the lack of response from APD. That was when
I started to panic.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It just so happens that right now I'm catching up.
I'm watching the Netflix special Domer.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Have you seen this?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay, I invite you to do this because I think
it'll send chills down your spine. There's a similar outcome here,
and that there is a villain Jeffrey Dahmer. But there
are villains here in Trende Ragua. But there's a character
portrayed by Nissi Nash that reminds me of you as
we're walking through this. And she was pleading with police
in Milwaukee at the time. There was a smell from
(03:58):
next door that she knew was bad. They kept ignoring
her and downplaying or dismissing or condescending to or wouldn't
send police out to check out what was going on.
And her name was Glenda Cleveland. As she turned out
to be a hero, the Reverend Jesse Jackson came and
visited her after Milwaukee police would not listen to her,
(04:19):
and this is well documented. It became a complete embarrassment
for the Milwaukee Police department. So the reason I bring
that up is you had to be exasperated with this
entire ordeal, Cindy, in that they were not listening to you.
Were they not taking you seriously? Did they not believe you?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
They weren't taking me seriously. And I was giving them
video the whole time of the criminal element. Any proof
that I come across on any of my six cameras,
I would send to the police, and they would just
compile evidence and which finally resulted in the task force
that they made in Aurora to combat this.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Cindy Ramrrill joining us live in studio. What was the
reluctance the hesitants as you see it? I'm asking for
your opinion here and you experienced this first hand of
real time for a pedit PD and deciding not to
come out.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Well, they knew more than I did. They had known
about the green light that trendier Agua, people high up
in trendier Aragua had given their lieutenants or whatever to
shoot the police if they interfered with them. I didn't
know about that. I didn't know about the access. I
was really just concentrating on surviving in my little one bedroom.
(05:33):
I just that was that was my hill, you know,
And I wasn't going to let anybody invade my hill.
And I didn't know what was going on just a
couple of miles down the street, and the police weren't
forth coming, and leadership wasn't forthcoming. And they actually encouraged
me to move but didn't tell me why. And I
(05:53):
told them repeatedly, if I could afford to move, I
wouldn't still be here. Dealing with this and sending you
guys proof of the criminal element here, and I really
I didn't get any response at all until they encouraged
me to reach out to the media. Unfortunately, being a
lifetime Democrat, I reached out to that media. First, I
(06:18):
got no response, and at a frustration, I didn't know.
I didn't know where to turn after that. And it
wasn't until the day of the shooting that someone actually
came up to me and was like insisting, let me
let me listen to you, let me hear your story.
(06:39):
And then it all came out and I showed the
video I told you know as much as I could
of my story on the side of the street, and
they were shocked. And I was so used to going
through this that I couldn't understand why.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now, Cindy, what you told me before the show was
it was nice news and Kyle Clark who reached out
to initially with this no response, no response, and then
somebody did approach you and say, tell me what's going on?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Who was that?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That was a Vicente from Fox thirty one News. He
was outside covering the shootout that happened on August eighteenth,
and he kept trying to approach my husband and I
to no avail and I told him, I said, look,
I can't get anyone to listen to me. I'm frustrated,
I'm upset, I'm mad, and I'm all these things. And
(07:31):
he said, I will listen, and he did.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Vicentiornas from Fox thirty one, well, a tip of the
cap to him. You mentioned your husband, and I want
you to tell the audience a little bit more about him.
And you guys are doing this together, so what happened
with him, and just tell us more about him.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
My husband had left earlier that morning after the police
had blocked off the whole block actually from the chootout
the night before, and my husband had left and already
went to work at six o'clock that morning. He got
all the way to work before he realized that he
too had bullet holes in his car, so he had
to turn around, take off work, turn around and come back.
(08:11):
And as we're waiting for the police to make their
way back down to our end of the block because
crime scene people that were down there taking their evidence,
we were waiting to give our statement to the police,
and Vicente approached my husband and my husband had just
had enough, He'd had enough, and we'd given up. We'd
(08:33):
give up fighting for our apartment. We didn't care anymore.
We just needed to get out of there, and so
out of frustration, he showed a Vicente the video, the
now infamous video, and we had been living with it
for so long. We weren't shocked by the video. We
thought it was you know, it was it was cool evidence,
(08:56):
but it wasn't that much considering our videos didn't pick
up the shootout, which to me, I thought was the
biggest disappointment, because I thought that was the proof we
really needed. And Vicente disagreed, and he was able to
show that video to Daniel Jerinsky, who had already bring
(09:18):
shining light on the subject of trendy ar Agua for
several months before that, and she asked him for my
phone number. He called us and made sure it was
okay to give her our information, and she called me
and she said, are you still living there? And I said, yeah,
I'm actually in my apartment right now. She says, well,
I'm going to get you out of there, and I
(09:40):
just started crying. That the relief, the thought that someone
would finally listen to me because I had already reached
out to all the community resources there were and been
shut down immediately once I said I wasn't an immigrant,
so we didn't have any resources.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
If you had been an immigrant, then what.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Then there's there's resources available there.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
There's there's food, there's health insurance, there's there's other things
that they can offer to help me. There's programs. There's
a victim advocacy program that helps the victims of violent
crime in Aurora. They actually ironically text me back finally
after I had moved out of Aurora and escaped, and
(10:25):
they told me that I no longer qualified because I
had moved out of Aurora, even though I was a
victim in Aurora.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Any were Cindy ramerill joining us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
She is the hero of this story that shed the
light on Trend de Ragua and their gang presence in
her apartment complex. Now you lived in lowery apartments right now.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I lived at the edge of lowery apartments and we.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Heard that Whispering Pines was another one. How close is
that to Lowry?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Do you have any idea there are really close?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Okay? And how many others are there? Do you know.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
That the actual owners of my building owned. There's probably
like six or seven in the surrounding Aurora, Denver area.
But honestly, in the process of going through this, I
was looking for other low income housing that I could
move into, and I wouldn't go look till Friday or
Saturday nights, because that's how it started at our building.
(11:20):
Loud music, the police nowhere around, and then just lawlesseners.
Just they were allowed to do whatever they want, destroy
the property, leave trash everywhere, have fights and shootouts in
the streets. And we would see this consistently, and more
and more of the properties that we would go to
to look at, and we would pull up and see
(11:42):
a large gathering of mid twenties men with bags strapped
across them, big enough to hold a gun, and congregating
and looking at us like we were strangers in our
own town. And we would say absolutely not and leave
and go try somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
The next Now, lowry apartments, Whispering pines. You mentioned some others.
How would you estimate how many others do you think
are taken over at this point?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Taking over? There's probably at least three, but three total
or three more three total?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Three total. Presence, Yeah, presence.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
The presence is in everyone. I've looked at every one.
You've looked at every single one. How many is that
at least eight eight eight.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Apartment complexes with a trend dead or Agua Venezuelan getting presence?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yes, that you saw first hand with your own eyes
that I seen.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I seen the earmarks that exactly how I seem they
take a toe hold into the building, right. They're taking
that toe hold into several other apartment complexes too.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
What you're describing, Cindy Romero, our guest, it just sounds
like mad Max beyond Thunderdome lawlessness, like you say, and
it's just being allowed to happen. Even Mike Kaufman, the
mayor of Aurora, told Dan Kaplis, that they're having to
take back areas like this street by street, block by block,
and it jibes with everything you're saying. Quick thought from
(13:06):
you on the mayor Mike Kaufman and what he's done
in response to this or not done.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It's never been about codes.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Codes.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I would have lived there forever if it was just
about things wrong with my building. Right, there wasn't anything
wrong with my apartment. Codes had cleared the building over
and over and over again. Mike Kaufman makes it seem
like it's all on the owner and it's about codes.
But I watched when these migrants destroyed the properties bit
(13:41):
by bit, apartment by apartment, And.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Why do you think this is being allowed to happen.
Why do you think that it's being tolerated at all.
This should be a zero tolerance policy. No apartment buildings
in Aurora should have trend de Raco running them.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Absolutely absolutely, And it was terrifying to see that walking
through the property and patrolling it with guns while they
were telling me that they were they were possessing the
guns and carrying the guns to protect us.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You were you were being told that by the trendy
oft Rogwall gang members.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yes, they told us. On the morning of the shootout,
we reported to APD that we seen six young men
carrying three automatic weapons down the steps of the adjoining building.
I reported it at seven point fifty four in the morning.
Me and my neighbor both witnessed it. We both called police.
(14:37):
By eight oh nine, I got a call back from
the police from a restricted number telling us that they
were not coming, that there was a part of an
ongoing investigation in that area. And they weren't going to
interfere with that.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
What were you supposed to do in the meantime? They
told you just to get out of there, right.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
They told me to stay in my stay in my
apartment and lock the door. And we sat there like
that all day. I sat barricaded. Yes, I sat on
the floor four feet from my front door with my
phone propped up on the coffee table, and I watched
live view of my cameras, just switching in between them
(15:17):
to see what I could see. And finally, at eleven
twenty we heard a loud noise outside the door. The
motion sensor on one of my cameras went off. I
started viewing one of my cameras and taking screenshots the
whole time because it wouldn't record while I was looking
at it, which is why we have the other view
(15:39):
from my other front door camera that went viral.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
What did you make? Did you see? This thread? Put out?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Was just yesterday, I believe by CBZ Management, that's the
company that owns the building that you were running from. Correct, Yes,
what did you think of their statement there?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I've had the opportunity to meet many of the victims
of the Gnome property takeover and it is heartbreaking what
they've went through. And I've went through some crazy stuff
at those properties. Those people are heroes.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And why is that.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
They will have physical and emotional scars for this for
the rest of their lives. And although my husband and
I and my previous neighbor, we all still have we
can't sleep, we all have all these PTSD symptoms, but
we were not physically hurt. These people were physically hurt.
(16:38):
They will have scars and emotional scars forever because of this.
And the police knew about it and did nothing. And
police knew about it and did nothing, And Mike Kaufman
knew about it and did nothing, and nobody so much
as even warned me.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
What is your husban?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
My husband's name is ed.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So Edward Merrill. Yeah, regular listener of this program.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yes, yes, avid listener of this program.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yes, oh well, Ed, thank you so much if you're
listening after the fact. You mentioned that he's out of
town right now, but we appreciate him as a listener,
and you were saying he was pleading with you, like,
there's another side did this? There's other information that's out
there and can help bring you along.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yes, I was a long term Democrat. I only watched
Democratic news. I would listen to the radio shows that
he would listen to when I'd get in the car,
and he'd hurry up and try to change him for
me so I wouldn't get angry. And boy was I
(17:46):
in for a wake up call. I've been really embraced
by the Republican Party, and really everybody I've come across
mostly has been really supportive. We had several volunteers of
Danielle's that showed up to help move me out of
(18:06):
my apartment. Yeah, John Fabrigatory and several others that I'm
just too many to name. They moved me out of
my apartment. I'd been living there for four years. They
moved me out in an hour and a half.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah. It took me ten days to find a suitable
apartment far enough away from this to where I feel
like I could be safe, and they showed I spent
one night packing. They showed up the next morning, bright
and early with a police escort that they knew was necessary.
They seen the people and they joining building staring out
(18:39):
these are where the guns were kept. Where they actually
found the guns. The next day, they knew that I
was in danger, and they actually knew how much danger
I was in. I still wasn't aware at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Sandy ra Meryl joining us back with much more, including
her appearance on Doctor Phil and her meeting with the President,
the former president Donald Trump at the most recent rally
here in Aurora.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
She joins us.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
For the full hour, you're listening to Ryan Shuling Life.
We are back on Ryan Shuling Live, Cindy Romero joining
me live in studio for the full hour. It was
her courage and her wisdom ahead of the curve that
led to this trend de Ataragua story being covered seriously
and forcing the hand of the mainstream media really to
(19:27):
take her seriously. We have some text you can send
those along if you have a question for Cindy as well.
Five seven, seven, three nine, Start those Ryan. This one says,
I truly believe that the Left was hiding or didn't
want to shed light on these stories to make immigrants
look bad. And then this text, which kind of coincides
with that, Ryan. The first thing is to stop calling
them immigrants. Well, these trend de at Arragua gang members, Yeah,
(19:49):
they're not immigrants. They're not coming here looking for a
better life. Well they are, but you know, like Donald
Trump says, they don't have a real estate card. Theirs
is a bullet. Okay, I had to get Alane. They
and then Alexis says, this what a story. Cindy is
so courageous. Also huge shout out to Danielle and John
for helping her out. And Cindy, I think you would
echo those sentiments right, yes, yes, Now I got to.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Go back to the rally in Aurora.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
This had to absolutely validate and solidify your decision to
come out publicly with everything that you've endured in meeting
President Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Take us behind the scenes, and what that was like.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Being invited. It was very kind of There was musings
about it. There was whispers that he was going to come.
Kyle Clark was on TV every night saying, it's you know,
been four days since Trump said he was coming, still
no reply. It was a little bit outside of when
I kind of thought he would come. So I thought
maybe he had changed his mind, changed his mind. And
(20:54):
when I did hear that he was coming for sure
and that I was going to be invited to you participate,
I was shocked. I was floored. I had no idea,
and then when I got asked to speak, that's when
all the pressure, all the you know, this is real,
You're not just going to see it, You're actually going
(21:15):
to speak with him, possibly meet him. It was a
humbling experience. Humbling.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Now your speaking part, we talked about this during the break.
You noticed that there weren't a lot of highlights that
were pulled from that from the mainstream media to try
to dissect it.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
They kind of left that alone. Why do you think
that is?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Well, I feel like they can't push back. It's the truth.
You can shoot the whistleblower, but what good does that do.
The truth is still going to get out. The police
have verified that my videos haven't been doctored or anything,
and I was supplying videos for a year. They all
knew I had cameras. The police would come to my
(21:58):
apartment and say why does she have all these cameras,
and my neighbors would tell them because she's scared. She's
alone a lot. She needs the cameras. So they knew
who I was, and when I would call and complain,
they knew who they were dealing with. Somebody who was
very active in my community, very watchful. I had cameras
(22:20):
on all my outward facing windows, as well as two
in my apartment. I was as they would escalate, so
would I. So I felt like I needed at least
six cameras to feel secure. And the very first thing
I did when I moved to the new place was buy.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
More smart and it turned out to be much to
your benefit. And again, to reinforce your story, Shannon, I
want to bring you in for a moment because the
morning crew over there at KOA and they're not alone
in this, but there's been an effort from the left,
and we'll say what we will about our own morning
show there, but to push back on these narratives, to
push back on Cindy's video, What was exactly that Marty
(23:00):
and Gina were saying of they're about the video that
Cindy shot.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Well, I'm certainly not blaming Marty and Gina for reading
the news copy that was provided them, So let's make
that clock. I'm not singling them out what was reported.
It's funny the diminishing effect of the video when trying
to describe it. You were not in TV, so you
have to describe what you're seeing. And they said video
(23:24):
of alleged gang members knocking on apartment doors.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Were they knocking on doors, Cindy, No, we scout cookies. No,
they weren't doing that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Okay, No, they weren't knocking on doors. They were actually
kicking doors in. And I'm using chisels and screwdrivers to
break the doors in. Am I seeing them for months
going up and trying this empty apartment across the hall
from me. And it was a coordinated effort because whoever
was trying the door knocking on it over and over
(23:56):
again to verify that nobody lived there any longer. They'd
be coordinating with someone across the courtyard in another building
and pointing to the door like this one, this one
right here. After they would kick in the doors and
take over the apartments. They would bring in their own
cleaning crew, and their cleaning crew would come in and
(24:17):
clean the apartments and get them ready to be shown.
Because shortly after that, different groups would come over and
look at the apartments like they were real estate agents,
and eventually they would decide and have a big meeting
over who would get the apartment, who was in their situation.
(24:39):
They their kind of general rule with each other is
whoever's in the worst living situation, they get the next apartment.
So say somebody living in their car with their family
who was starving in no food, they would get president over,
say a pregnant woman sleeping on the floor two floors
down in their family's apartment. So it would just go
(25:00):
by who had it worse at the time. That would
determine who got the empty apartment. So I would watch
as people would come in and view the apartments and
then take it or not take it. I've seen people
move into gratefully into apartments they knew were crawling with
bed bugs and roaches that had moved from another apartment
(25:25):
of migrants, and they would be so grateful it was heartbreaking.
But at the same time, none of these people were leaseholders. No,
and I was still paying my rent.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That was my next question is were you one of
the last tenants to abandon this complex? Actual tenants? I
was the last the last. So question along those lines.
Did the gang members approach you, threaten you, try to
extort you, say, hey, give us X number of dollars,
we'll leave you alone, any of that?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No. I donated all my stuff to them. They watched
as I come and left, so they would sit the
stairway with their guns. They'd watch when I come in
and out with groceries. They'd watch when I come in
out with Walmart, beg They asked for things constantly. They
just asked for anything extra, any food, any clothing, any
(26:15):
Most recently, I was asked for a medicine because they
don't have a lot of access to medicine. Medicine, food, bedbugs, spray,
roach spray. I would give them all of it, but
of course they were just spreading it to each other
apartment because then they'd go to another apartment and take
their bugs with them. So I nobody ever got inside
(26:36):
my apartment. I kept my apartment locked, even when I
was just standing outside the door with them talking with them.
But through many conversations with them, I've got to know
a lot of the families that were in my building,
those that were actually being held at gunpoint by the
people with guns in that later video. Right, there are
(26:56):
a lot of people that are here seeking asylum that
are no where through the process, nowhere through the process.
They don't know how to go through the process, they
don't know who to talk to, and a lot of
these people are the ones being abused by this gang,
criminal element, and those are the doors that they went to.
They didn't knock on my door. They assumed I was armed.
(27:21):
They were there looking and watching the day that the
locksmith came in and installed on my locks. They knew
I was not playing with any of them, so they although.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
They had you had cameras posted.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yes, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Why didn't they take those out?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
They actually would move them. They would like turn cameras. Yeah,
they would turn them, and we have them on video
doing it, which is hilarious. But I lived on the
third floor, so all my outword facing cameras, I had
one mounted outside over the parking lot. All the rest
of them were in the window facing out except for
the ones on my front door. Now the ring doorbell
(27:59):
camera that cut the screen captures, and then the video
camera up in the corner was also a ring camera,
but it ran continuous. So what they would do is
they would reach up and they would turn it. So
they thought it wouldn't cover but it covered everything. They
My neighbor also had a camera on the floor before
she moved out, prior to the day of the shooting,
(28:20):
and they would send their kids up to turn the cameras.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah, We have a response from the Mayor's office that
I wanted you to respond to when we come back.
Cindy Romero, our guests for the full hour, one final segment.
If you've got a question during the break, I'll pose
that tour when we return five seven, seven, three nine
is we're to send those texts you're listening to Ryan Shuling.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Live back and rounding things out.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Was Cindy Romero, our guest for the full hour here
on Ryan Schuling live text rolling in Ryan, She's a
hero and I admire her courage.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Ryan.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
The Cindy Romero interview needs to be put on blast.
Even Mike Kaufman did nothing horrible and then this one
Ryan great interview. Thank you, Cindy. Cindy needs to make
a walk away video. Love you, Cindy. You gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
We'll get some help for you along those lines.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Speaking of help, you can help Cindy and add out
simply go to GoFundMe dot com and search help the
Romeros rebuild after extended apartment complex violence. We want to
ramp these numbers up. They have a twenty five thousand
dollars goal. Let's blow that out of the water. You
can know that this is the correct one. It says
donation protected and Cynthia Barnett is organizing this fundraiser on
(29:36):
behalf of Cindy Romero. That's a GoFundMe dot com help
the Romeros dot dot dot whant to have you respond
to this, Cindy. This is the statement from the deputy
director of Communications for Mayor Kaufman's office, Ryan Sluby pronouns
he him his always like mentioning that read into that
way you will quote. We are not going to give
credence to these continued exaggerations. This is talking about these
(30:00):
statement in the Twitter thread put out by CBZ Management
that owns and operates the buildings, one of which.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Cindy lived in.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Please see the numerous previous statements in many public records
we have provided. These delinquent property owners, managers and or
quote investors conveniently failed to acknowledge that their own bank
lenders took them the court in the last few weeks,
where a judge ordered some of them some of their
problematic properties into receivership. That means a judge has given
the legal authority to a third party receiver to actually
(30:31):
manage the properties and who the property owners will be
forced to compensate.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Cindy your response, and he is conveniently failing to mention
that Mike Kaufman, the APD, and Governor Paulis knew about
this for almost an entire year before the shooting in
my apartments. They knew about the gang takeovers, they knew
about the assaults, they knew about the arrests that were pending,
(30:57):
and if I could find out they were I to
is trend. Dear Ragua, they should already know.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Okay, so do you mentioned that daniel Dreinsky may well
have saved your life and helping get you out of
those apartments. You had mentioned as well, there was a
meeting last night and that Danielle has come into possession
of extra video in addition to yours.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
What do you suspect those videos reveal.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I'm horrified at what it could reveal. There's been a
lot of rumors going around about the dangerous things going
on at home and what was found there after they
shut the properties down. When she talked with me about it,
she was very emotional and very upset. These are not
(31:44):
going to be easy to watch.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
We've been hearing about addiction anyway, we've been hearing about from.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
John Fabrigatory, human trafficking going on, their prostitution against the
will of women, of being trafficked, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Are these the types of things that you're fearing are
on video now?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
These people are torturing and kidnapping people as well, so
I'm really scared of what the video might hold, Sindy.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Final word for our audience here in a couple of
minutes we have left. I just want to give you
the floor to talk about anything that we haven't discussed
at this point, or anything you feel is important for
them to know.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
People in the area if you have groups, large groups.
I have twenty to thirty year old men outside late
at night, loud music and the police will not come.
You guys know who you are. Don't keep calling the police,
get cameras, protect yourself because they didn't warn me. Good
(32:43):
luck to everybody out there, Sindy.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Finally, where does it go from here? For you and Ed?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I mentioned once again the GoFundMe that people can contribute
to help the romeros there, But what is.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Life for you? What does it look like from here?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I'm still going to my little part time job riding
around town. With my cars with bullet holes in them.
I'm just trying to get the word out so everybody
else will be safe. I want one day to be
able to move back to Aurora, and my family lives there,
I convince them to move there. I never thought that
I would ever leave, but I've been forced out, and
(33:20):
until this is taken care of, I'm too scared to
go back.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Is Donald Trump winning in November? Change this?
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Donald Trump's the only one who's even admit that it
was an issue. No one else has even admitted that
there's a problem, or that there are people like here
out here like me who are victims. But there's no
programs for us, so we're just stuck there. Shout out
to the neighborhood watch that has been set up in
(33:48):
my stead in that neighborhood. You guys are fighting the
good fight, and I'm going to do everything I can
to make sure you guys are safe and can actually
rest at night.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I see this as very emotional for you.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Still, yes, yes, Hearing some of the stories and the
people who are continuing to live there in danger and
scared and terrified, that's what keeps me motivated, and that's
what makes me keep fighting even though people don't want
to believe it.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I still can't understand the other side of this as
to why people on the left would want to diminish,
downplay this, enable it in any way, tolerate even one
or two like Martha Rattits with JD.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Vance.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
It's just a few apartment complexes. Martha, come talk to
Cindy Romero. Come have a conversation with her as to
what impact that has on people's lives who actually have
to endure this. Cindy, you were a hero to everybody
in our audience, to me personally, I thank you so
much for taking the time today, and please know this.
You are welcome anytime along with Ed, especially because he's
(34:52):
been a fan going way back.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I'm going to have you both in studio next time.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Okay, thank you so much for your support.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Thank you, Cindy Ramero.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Once again, please donate at her GoFundMe dot com. Help
the Romaros rebuild after extended apartment complex violence. They deserve it.
They have earned our support. Our number two straight ahead
here on Ryan Schuling Life
I lived at the edge of lowry apartments for four years.
I was pushed out and tortured over the course of
a year to give up my apartment. At first, it
started with people renting the apartments. We thought legitimately, they're
all migrants from Venezuela, different parts of Venezuela. It started
to be more and more younger males standing around. They
(00:23):
all have bags or purses large enough to carry a gun.
Then they stopped trying to hide carrying the guns. They
would open carry them and keep them in their waistband.
I would keep increasing my security, so I would get
more and more cameras, more and more weapons inside my home.
We'd call the police over and over again, and then
(00:44):
they would finally call us back and just tell us
that they weren't coming. They didn't come until the shootout.
We heard yelling outside. We heard someone say shut your
mouth in Spanish, and then we heard gunfire. After they
discovered the bullet hole in my vehicle of my husband's vehicle,
they found a trail of blood and they were able
(01:04):
to follow it to a building that was maybe three
buildings away from mine. It turns out the guy that
they shot was the guy who used to live diagonally
across from me. If armed men have guns in your
building and they're changing the locks, that's a takeover. I
(01:24):
don't care what your definition. Is.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A very important edition of Ryan Schuling Live coming right
at you, and that was the intro to Doctor Phil
Prime Time, and the episode that you heard featured the
hero that joined us now live in studio for the
full hour, and that is Cindy Romero. Of course, she
is the one who took the video that broke the Internet,
that went viral, that gave us the visuals to the
(01:49):
story that we were being told that John Fabricatory and
Daniel Durinsky had talked about with me well in advance
of all of these things that happened in the aftermath
of that video. That was the turning point. And the
hero of this story is Cindy Rameril.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
She joined us now. Cindy, thank you so much for
being with me.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Now, when you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Hear that the details compressed like that for your appearance
on Doctor Phil, what's the first thing that comes to
your mind.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I'm still terrified. Not even hearing about it takes me
right back. It wasn't that long ago. It was. It's
so surreal that it doesn't even seem like it happened.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Now, take us back, if you would, to the first
time that you suspected something, because what you're describing and
talking about there is what you noticed kind of in
real time that followed after that fact. But there had
to be an initial inflection point in which you were like,
(02:50):
something's not right here, something's up.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
When was that and what did you notice?
Speaker 1 (02:55):
When the police stopped answering the calls a non emergency number,
we would sit on hold for forty five minutes. The
dispatchers recognized my name and my address and my voice
when they stopped coming, and I started getting calls back
hours later saying I'm sorry we couldn't come, or I'm sorry.
(03:18):
By the time we showed up, there was nobody out there.
Just the lack of response from APD. That was when
I started to panic.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It just so happens that right now I'm catching up.
I'm watching the Netflix special Domer.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Have you seen this?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay, I invite you to do this because I think
it'll send chills down your spine. There's a similar outcome here,
and that there is a villain Jeffrey Dahmer. But there
are villains here in Trende Ragua. But there's a character
portrayed by Nissi Nash that reminds me of you as
we're walking through this. And she was pleading with police
in Milwaukee at the time. There was a smell from
(03:58):
next door that she knew was bad. They kept ignoring
her and downplaying or dismissing or condescending to or wouldn't
send police out to check out what was going on.
And her name was Glenda Cleveland. As she turned out
to be a hero, the Reverend Jesse Jackson came and
visited her after Milwaukee police would not listen to her,
(04:19):
and this is well documented. It became a complete embarrassment
for the Milwaukee Police department. So the reason I bring
that up is you had to be exasperated with this
entire ordeal, Cindy, in that they were not listening to you.
Were they not taking you seriously? Did they not believe you?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
They weren't taking me seriously. And I was giving them
video the whole time of the criminal element. Any proof
that I come across on any of my six cameras,
I would send to the police, and they would just
compile evidence and which finally resulted in the task force
that they made in Aurora to combat this.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Cindy Ramrrill joining us live in studio. What was the
reluctance the hesitants as you see it? I'm asking for
your opinion here and you experienced this first hand of
real time for a pedit PD and deciding not to
come out.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Well, they knew more than I did. They had known
about the green light that trendier Agua, people high up
in trendier Aragua had given their lieutenants or whatever to
shoot the police if they interfered with them. I didn't
know about that. I didn't know about the access. I
was really just concentrating on surviving in my little one bedroom.
(05:33):
I just that was that was my hill, you know,
And I wasn't going to let anybody invade my hill.
And I didn't know what was going on just a
couple of miles down the street, and the police weren't
forth coming, and leadership wasn't forthcoming. And they actually encouraged
me to move but didn't tell me why. And I
(05:53):
told them repeatedly, if I could afford to move, I
wouldn't still be here. Dealing with this and sending you
guys proof of the criminal element here, and I really
I didn't get any response at all until they encouraged
me to reach out to the media. Unfortunately, being a
lifetime Democrat, I reached out to that media. First, I
(06:18):
got no response, and at a frustration, I didn't know.
I didn't know where to turn after that. And it
wasn't until the day of the shooting that someone actually
came up to me and was like insisting, let me
let me listen to you, let me hear your story.
(06:39):
And then it all came out and I showed the
video I told you know as much as I could
of my story on the side of the street, and
they were shocked. And I was so used to going
through this that I couldn't understand why.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now, Cindy, what you told me before the show was
it was nice news and Kyle Clark who reached out
to initially with this no response, no response, and then
somebody did approach you and say, tell me what's going on?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Who was that?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That was a Vicente from Fox thirty one News. He
was outside covering the shootout that happened on August eighteenth,
and he kept trying to approach my husband and I
to no avail and I told him, I said, look,
I can't get anyone to listen to me. I'm frustrated,
I'm upset, I'm mad, and I'm all these things. And
(07:31):
he said, I will listen, and he did.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Vicentiornas from Fox thirty one, well, a tip of the
cap to him. You mentioned your husband, and I want
you to tell the audience a little bit more about him.
And you guys are doing this together, so what happened
with him, and just tell us more about him.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
My husband had left earlier that morning after the police
had blocked off the whole block actually from the chootout
the night before, and my husband had left and already
went to work at six o'clock that morning. He got
all the way to work before he realized that he
too had bullet holes in his car, so he had
to turn around, take off work, turn around and come back.
(08:11):
And as we're waiting for the police to make their
way back down to our end of the block because
crime scene people that were down there taking their evidence,
we were waiting to give our statement to the police,
and Vicente approached my husband and my husband had just
had enough, He'd had enough, and we'd given up. We'd
(08:33):
give up fighting for our apartment. We didn't care anymore.
We just needed to get out of there, and so
out of frustration, he showed a Vicente the video, the
now infamous video, and we had been living with it
for so long. We weren't shocked by the video. We
thought it was you know, it was it was cool evidence,
(08:56):
but it wasn't that much considering our videos didn't pick
up the shootout, which to me, I thought was the
biggest disappointment, because I thought that was the proof we
really needed. And Vicente disagreed, and he was able to
show that video to Daniel Jerinsky, who had already bring
(09:18):
shining light on the subject of trendy ar Agua for
several months before that, and she asked him for my
phone number. He called us and made sure it was
okay to give her our information, and she called me
and she said, are you still living there? And I said, yeah,
I'm actually in my apartment right now. She says, well,
I'm going to get you out of there, and I
(09:40):
just started crying. That the relief, the thought that someone
would finally listen to me because I had already reached
out to all the community resources there were and been
shut down immediately once I said I wasn't an immigrant,
so we didn't have any resources.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
If you had been an immigrant, then what.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Then there's there's resources available there.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
There's there's food, there's health insurance, there's there's other things
that they can offer to help me. There's programs. There's
a victim advocacy program that helps the victims of violent
crime in Aurora. They actually ironically text me back finally
after I had moved out of Aurora and escaped, and
(10:25):
they told me that I no longer qualified because I
had moved out of Aurora, even though I was a
victim in Aurora.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Any were Cindy ramerill joining us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
She is the hero of this story that shed the
light on Trend de Ragua and their gang presence in
her apartment complex. Now you lived in lowery apartments right now.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I lived at the edge of lowery apartments and we.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Heard that Whispering Pines was another one. How close is
that to Lowry?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Do you have any idea there are really close?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Okay? And how many others are there? Do you know.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
That the actual owners of my building owned. There's probably
like six or seven in the surrounding Aurora, Denver area.
But honestly, in the process of going through this, I
was looking for other low income housing that I could
move into, and I wouldn't go look till Friday or
Saturday nights, because that's how it started at our building.
(11:20):
Loud music, the police nowhere around, and then just lawlesseners.
Just they were allowed to do whatever they want, destroy
the property, leave trash everywhere, have fights and shootouts in
the streets. And we would see this consistently, and more
and more of the properties that we would go to
to look at, and we would pull up and see
(11:42):
a large gathering of mid twenties men with bags strapped
across them, big enough to hold a gun, and congregating
and looking at us like we were strangers in our
own town. And we would say absolutely not and leave
and go try somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
The next Now, lowry apartments, Whispering pines. You mentioned some others.
How would you estimate how many others do you think
are taken over at this point?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Taking over? There's probably at least three, but three total
or three more three total?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Three total. Presence, Yeah, presence.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
The presence is in everyone. I've looked at every one.
You've looked at every single one. How many is that
at least eight eight eight.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Apartment complexes with a trend dead or Agua Venezuelan getting presence?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yes, that you saw first hand with your own eyes
that I seen.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I seen the earmarks that exactly how I seem they
take a toe hold into the building, right. They're taking
that toe hold into several other apartment complexes too.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
What you're describing, Cindy Romero, our guest, it just sounds
like mad Max beyond Thunderdome lawlessness, like you say, and
it's just being allowed to happen. Even Mike Kaufman, the
mayor of Aurora, told Dan Kaplis, that they're having to
take back areas like this street by street, block by block,
and it jibes with everything you're saying. Quick thought from
(13:06):
you on the mayor Mike Kaufman and what he's done
in response to this or not done.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It's never been about codes.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Codes.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I would have lived there forever if it was just
about things wrong with my building. Right, there wasn't anything
wrong with my apartment. Codes had cleared the building over
and over and over again. Mike Kaufman makes it seem
like it's all on the owner and it's about codes.
But I watched when these migrants destroyed the properties bit
(13:41):
by bit, apartment by apartment, And.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Why do you think this is being allowed to happen.
Why do you think that it's being tolerated at all.
This should be a zero tolerance policy. No apartment buildings
in Aurora should have trend de Raco running them.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Absolutely absolutely, And it was terrifying to see that walking
through the property and patrolling it with guns while they
were telling me that they were they were possessing the
guns and carrying the guns to protect us.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You were you were being told that by the trendy
oft Rogwall gang members.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yes, they told us. On the morning of the shootout,
we reported to APD that we seen six young men
carrying three automatic weapons down the steps of the adjoining building.
I reported it at seven point fifty four in the morning.
Me and my neighbor both witnessed it. We both called police.
(14:37):
By eight oh nine, I got a call back from
the police from a restricted number telling us that they
were not coming, that there was a part of an
ongoing investigation in that area. And they weren't going to
interfere with that.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
What were you supposed to do in the meantime? They
told you just to get out of there, right.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
They told me to stay in my stay in my
apartment and lock the door. And we sat there like
that all day. I sat barricaded. Yes, I sat on
the floor four feet from my front door with my
phone propped up on the coffee table, and I watched
live view of my cameras, just switching in between them
(15:17):
to see what I could see. And finally, at eleven
twenty we heard a loud noise outside the door. The
motion sensor on one of my cameras went off. I
started viewing one of my cameras and taking screenshots the
whole time because it wouldn't record while I was looking
at it, which is why we have the other view
(15:39):
from my other front door camera that went viral.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
What did you make? Did you see? This thread? Put out?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Was just yesterday, I believe by CBZ Management, that's the
company that owns the building that you were running from. Correct, Yes,
what did you think of their statement there?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I've had the opportunity to meet many of the victims
of the Gnome property takeover and it is heartbreaking what
they've went through. And I've went through some crazy stuff
at those properties. Those people are heroes.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And why is that.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
They will have physical and emotional scars for this for
the rest of their lives. And although my husband and
I and my previous neighbor, we all still have we
can't sleep, we all have all these PTSD symptoms, but
we were not physically hurt. These people were physically hurt.
(16:38):
They will have scars and emotional scars forever because of this.
And the police knew about it and did nothing. And
police knew about it and did nothing, And Mike Kaufman
knew about it and did nothing, and nobody so much
as even warned me.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
What is your husban?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
My husband's name is ed.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So Edward Merrill. Yeah, regular listener of this program.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yes, yes, avid listener of this program.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yes, oh well, Ed, thank you so much if you're
listening after the fact. You mentioned that he's out of
town right now, but we appreciate him as a listener,
and you were saying he was pleading with you, like,
there's another side did this? There's other information that's out
there and can help bring you along.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yes, I was a long term Democrat. I only watched
Democratic news. I would listen to the radio shows that
he would listen to when I'd get in the car,
and he'd hurry up and try to change him for
me so I wouldn't get angry. And boy was I
(17:46):
in for a wake up call. I've been really embraced
by the Republican Party, and really everybody I've come across
mostly has been really supportive. We had several volunteers of
Danielle's that showed up to help move me out of
(18:06):
my apartment. Yeah, John Fabrigatory and several others that I'm
just too many to name. They moved me out of
my apartment. I'd been living there for four years. They
moved me out in an hour and a half.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah. It took me ten days to find a suitable
apartment far enough away from this to where I feel
like I could be safe, and they showed I spent
one night packing. They showed up the next morning, bright
and early with a police escort that they knew was necessary.
They seen the people and they joining building staring out
(18:39):
these are where the guns were kept. Where they actually
found the guns. The next day, they knew that I
was in danger, and they actually knew how much danger
I was in. I still wasn't aware at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Sandy ra Meryl joining us back with much more, including
her appearance on Doctor Phil and her meeting with the President,
the former president Donald Trump at the most recent rally
here in Aurora.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
She joins us.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
For the full hour, you're listening to Ryan Shuling Life.
We are back on Ryan Shuling Live, Cindy Romero joining
me live in studio for the full hour. It was
her courage and her wisdom ahead of the curve that
led to this trend de Ataragua story being covered seriously
and forcing the hand of the mainstream media really to
(19:27):
take her seriously. We have some text you can send
those along if you have a question for Cindy as well.
Five seven, seven, three nine, Start those Ryan. This one says,
I truly believe that the Left was hiding or didn't
want to shed light on these stories to make immigrants
look bad. And then this text, which kind of coincides
with that, Ryan. The first thing is to stop calling
them immigrants. Well, these trend de at Arragua gang members, Yeah,
(19:49):
they're not immigrants. They're not coming here looking for a
better life. Well they are, but you know, like Donald
Trump says, they don't have a real estate card. Theirs
is a bullet. Okay, I had to get Alane. They
and then Alexis says, this what a story. Cindy is
so courageous. Also huge shout out to Danielle and John
for helping her out. And Cindy, I think you would
echo those sentiments right, yes, yes, Now I got to.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Go back to the rally in Aurora.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
This had to absolutely validate and solidify your decision to
come out publicly with everything that you've endured in meeting
President Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Take us behind the scenes, and what that was like.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Being invited. It was very kind of There was musings
about it. There was whispers that he was going to come.
Kyle Clark was on TV every night saying, it's you know,
been four days since Trump said he was coming, still
no reply. It was a little bit outside of when
I kind of thought he would come. So I thought
maybe he had changed his mind, changed his mind. And
(20:54):
when I did hear that he was coming for sure
and that I was going to be invited to you participate,
I was shocked. I was floored. I had no idea,
and then when I got asked to speak, that's when
all the pressure, all the you know, this is real,
You're not just going to see it, You're actually going
(21:15):
to speak with him, possibly meet him. It was a
humbling experience. Humbling.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Now your speaking part, we talked about this during the break.
You noticed that there weren't a lot of highlights that
were pulled from that from the mainstream media to try
to dissect it.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
They kind of left that alone. Why do you think
that is?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Well, I feel like they can't push back. It's the truth.
You can shoot the whistleblower, but what good does that do.
The truth is still going to get out. The police
have verified that my videos haven't been doctored or anything,
and I was supplying videos for a year. They all
knew I had cameras. The police would come to my
(21:58):
apartment and say why does she have all these cameras,
and my neighbors would tell them because she's scared. She's
alone a lot. She needs the cameras. So they knew
who I was, and when I would call and complain,
they knew who they were dealing with. Somebody who was
very active in my community, very watchful. I had cameras
(22:20):
on all my outward facing windows, as well as two
in my apartment. I was as they would escalate, so
would I. So I felt like I needed at least
six cameras to feel secure. And the very first thing
I did when I moved to the new place was buy.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
More smart and it turned out to be much to
your benefit. And again, to reinforce your story, Shannon, I
want to bring you in for a moment because the
morning crew over there at KOA and they're not alone
in this, but there's been an effort from the left,
and we'll say what we will about our own morning
show there, but to push back on these narratives, to
push back on Cindy's video, What was exactly that Marty
(23:00):
and Gina were saying of they're about the video that
Cindy shot.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Well, I'm certainly not blaming Marty and Gina for reading
the news copy that was provided them, So let's make
that clock. I'm not singling them out what was reported.
It's funny the diminishing effect of the video when trying
to describe it. You were not in TV, so you
have to describe what you're seeing. And they said video
(23:24):
of alleged gang members knocking on apartment doors.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Were they knocking on doors, Cindy, No, we scout cookies. No,
they weren't doing that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Okay, No, they weren't knocking on doors. They were actually
kicking doors in. And I'm using chisels and screwdrivers to
break the doors in. Am I seeing them for months
going up and trying this empty apartment across the hall
from me. And it was a coordinated effort because whoever
was trying the door knocking on it over and over
(23:56):
again to verify that nobody lived there any longer. They'd
be coordinating with someone across the courtyard in another building
and pointing to the door like this one, this one
right here. After they would kick in the doors and
take over the apartments. They would bring in their own
cleaning crew, and their cleaning crew would come in and
(24:17):
clean the apartments and get them ready to be shown.
Because shortly after that, different groups would come over and
look at the apartments like they were real estate agents,
and eventually they would decide and have a big meeting
over who would get the apartment, who was in their situation.
(24:39):
They their kind of general rule with each other is
whoever's in the worst living situation, they get the next apartment.
So say somebody living in their car with their family
who was starving in no food, they would get president over,
say a pregnant woman sleeping on the floor two floors
down in their family's apartment. So it would just go
(25:00):
by who had it worse at the time. That would
determine who got the empty apartment. So I would watch
as people would come in and view the apartments and
then take it or not take it. I've seen people
move into gratefully into apartments they knew were crawling with
bed bugs and roaches that had moved from another apartment
(25:25):
of migrants, and they would be so grateful it was heartbreaking.
But at the same time, none of these people were leaseholders. No,
and I was still paying my rent.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That was my next question is were you one of
the last tenants to abandon this complex? Actual tenants? I
was the last the last. So question along those lines.
Did the gang members approach you, threaten you, try to
extort you, say, hey, give us X number of dollars,
we'll leave you alone, any of that?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No. I donated all my stuff to them. They watched
as I come and left, so they would sit the
stairway with their guns. They'd watch when I come in
and out with groceries. They'd watch when I come in
out with Walmart, beg They asked for things constantly. They
just asked for anything extra, any food, any clothing, any
(26:15):
Most recently, I was asked for a medicine because they
don't have a lot of access to medicine. Medicine, food, bedbugs, spray,
roach spray. I would give them all of it, but
of course they were just spreading it to each other
apartment because then they'd go to another apartment and take
their bugs with them. So I nobody ever got inside
(26:36):
my apartment. I kept my apartment locked, even when I
was just standing outside the door with them talking with them.
But through many conversations with them, I've got to know
a lot of the families that were in my building,
those that were actually being held at gunpoint by the
people with guns in that later video. Right, there are
(26:56):
a lot of people that are here seeking asylum that
are no where through the process, nowhere through the process.
They don't know how to go through the process, they
don't know who to talk to, and a lot of
these people are the ones being abused by this gang,
criminal element, and those are the doors that they went to.
They didn't knock on my door. They assumed I was armed.
(27:21):
They were there looking and watching the day that the
locksmith came in and installed on my locks. They knew
I was not playing with any of them, so they although.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
They had you had cameras posted.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yes, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Why didn't they take those out?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
They actually would move them. They would like turn cameras. Yeah,
they would turn them, and we have them on video
doing it, which is hilarious. But I lived on the
third floor, so all my outword facing cameras, I had
one mounted outside over the parking lot. All the rest
of them were in the window facing out except for
the ones on my front door. Now the ring doorbell
(27:59):
camera that cut the screen captures, and then the video
camera up in the corner was also a ring camera,
but it ran continuous. So what they would do is
they would reach up and they would turn it. So
they thought it wouldn't cover but it covered everything. They
My neighbor also had a camera on the floor before
she moved out, prior to the day of the shooting,
(28:20):
and they would send their kids up to turn the cameras.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah, We have a response from the Mayor's office that
I wanted you to respond to when we come back.
Cindy Romero, our guests for the full hour, one final segment.
If you've got a question during the break, I'll pose
that tour when we return five seven, seven, three nine
is we're to send those texts you're listening to Ryan Shuling.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Live back and rounding things out.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Was Cindy Romero, our guest for the full hour here
on Ryan Schuling live text rolling in Ryan, She's a
hero and I admire her courage.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Ryan.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
The Cindy Romero interview needs to be put on blast.
Even Mike Kaufman did nothing horrible and then this one
Ryan great interview. Thank you, Cindy. Cindy needs to make
a walk away video. Love you, Cindy. You gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
We'll get some help for you along those lines.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Speaking of help, you can help Cindy and add out
simply go to GoFundMe dot com and search help the
Romeros rebuild after extended apartment complex violence. We want to
ramp these numbers up. They have a twenty five thousand
dollars goal. Let's blow that out of the water. You
can know that this is the correct one. It says
donation protected and Cynthia Barnett is organizing this fundraiser on
(29:36):
behalf of Cindy Romero. That's a GoFundMe dot com help
the Romeros dot dot dot whant to have you respond
to this, Cindy. This is the statement from the deputy
director of Communications for Mayor Kaufman's office, Ryan Sluby pronouns
he him his always like mentioning that read into that
way you will quote. We are not going to give
credence to these continued exaggerations. This is talking about these
(30:00):
statement in the Twitter thread put out by CBZ Management
that owns and operates the buildings, one of which.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Cindy lived in.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Please see the numerous previous statements in many public records
we have provided. These delinquent property owners, managers and or
quote investors conveniently failed to acknowledge that their own bank
lenders took them the court in the last few weeks,
where a judge ordered some of them some of their
problematic properties into receivership. That means a judge has given
the legal authority to a third party receiver to actually
(30:31):
manage the properties and who the property owners will be
forced to compensate.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Cindy your response, and he is conveniently failing to mention
that Mike Kaufman, the APD, and Governor Paulis knew about
this for almost an entire year before the shooting in
my apartments. They knew about the gang takeovers, they knew
about the assaults, they knew about the arrests that were pending,
(30:57):
and if I could find out they were I to
is trend. Dear Ragua, they should already know.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Okay, so do you mentioned that daniel Dreinsky may well
have saved your life and helping get you out of
those apartments. You had mentioned as well, there was a
meeting last night and that Danielle has come into possession
of extra video in addition to yours.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
What do you suspect those videos reveal.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I'm horrified at what it could reveal. There's been a
lot of rumors going around about the dangerous things going
on at home and what was found there after they
shut the properties down. When she talked with me about it,
she was very emotional and very upset. These are not
(31:44):
going to be easy to watch.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
We've been hearing about addiction anyway, we've been hearing about from.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
John Fabrigatory, human trafficking going on, their prostitution against the
will of women, of being trafficked, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Are these the types of things that you're fearing are
on video now?
Speaker 1 (31:58):
These people are torturing and kidnapping people as well, so
I'm really scared of what the video might hold, Sindy.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Final word for our audience here in a couple of
minutes we have left. I just want to give you
the floor to talk about anything that we haven't discussed
at this point, or anything you feel is important for
them to know.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
People in the area if you have groups, large groups.
I have twenty to thirty year old men outside late
at night, loud music and the police will not come.
You guys know who you are. Don't keep calling the police,
get cameras, protect yourself because they didn't warn me. Good
(32:43):
luck to everybody out there, Sindy.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Finally, where does it go from here? For you and Ed?
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I mentioned once again the GoFundMe that people can contribute
to help the romeros there, But what is.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Life for you? What does it look like from here?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I'm still going to my little part time job riding
around town. With my cars with bullet holes in them.
I'm just trying to get the word out so everybody
else will be safe. I want one day to be
able to move back to Aurora, and my family lives there,
I convince them to move there. I never thought that
I would ever leave, but I've been forced out, and
(33:20):
until this is taken care of, I'm too scared to
go back.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Is Donald Trump winning in November? Change this?
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Donald Trump's the only one who's even admit that it
was an issue. No one else has even admitted that
there's a problem, or that there are people like here
out here like me who are victims. But there's no
programs for us, so we're just stuck there. Shout out
to the neighborhood watch that has been set up in
(33:48):
my stead in that neighborhood. You guys are fighting the
good fight, and I'm going to do everything I can
to make sure you guys are safe and can actually
rest at night.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I see this as very emotional for you.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Still, yes, yes, Hearing some of the stories and the
people who are continuing to live there in danger and
scared and terrified, that's what keeps me motivated, and that's
what makes me keep fighting even though people don't want
to believe it.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I still can't understand the other side of this as
to why people on the left would want to diminish,
downplay this, enable it in any way, tolerate even one
or two like Martha Rattits with JD.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Vance.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
It's just a few apartment complexes. Martha, come talk to
Cindy Romero. Come have a conversation with her as to
what impact that has on people's lives who actually have
to endure this. Cindy, you were a hero to everybody
in our audience, to me personally, I thank you so
much for taking the time today, and please know this.
You are welcome anytime along with Ed, especially because he's
(34:52):
been a fan going way back.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
I'm going to have you both in studio next time.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Okay, thank you so much for your support.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Thank you, Cindy Ramero.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Once again, please donate at her GoFundMe dot com. Help
the Romaros rebuild after extended apartment complex violence. They deserve it.
They have earned our support. Our number two straight ahead
here on Ryan Schuling Life
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