Jeff Hughes, a professional musician, explains how he calmed tensions between police and protesters in the Colorado town where police killed the young Black man
AURORA, Colo. — For 30 minutes, it looked as if the vigil for Elijah McClain would be remembered as yet another violent altercation between police in riot gear and protesters in T-shirts and shorts.
Thousands of demonstrators had gathered in the Aurora, Colo., city center June 27 to honor McClain, a young Black man Aurora police killed last August when he was walking home from a store. When he resisted arrest, he was put in a chokehold and later injected with ketamine. He was declared brain dead and died several days later.
McClain, who was stopped because police said he looked suspicious, had not committed a crime and was not armed.
Before the demonstration in McClain’s hometown could begin, the Aurora police deemed the vigil an unlawful protest, announcing that the group must disperse or risk arrest.
The police stood shoulder-to-shoulder clad in body armor. They held batons and other weapons.
At times, they eased the group backward one foot at a time. Often the police forced individuals back using their batons or chemical agents.
Screams of “Medic!” rose from the crowd. Volunteers worked together to pull the injured to safety.
The vigil was looking darkest when a line of officers holding shotguns and grenade launchers with rubber bullets began pointing their weapons into the crowd. People started to run.
Suddenly, a violin wailed, playing Tupac Shakur’s 1998 hit song “Changes.”
The crowd stopped screaming at the police. The police stopped pushing against the crowd. Everyone turned to watch a man play his violin while standing in the bed of his black pickup.
Jeff Hughes had illegally driven his truck around barriers and over curbs blocking the parking lot’s entrance to set up his PA system, and he began playing his violin to honor McClain.
“The music totally just stopped everything, and the hostility and the fear evaporated,” Hughes said. “Just all of a sudden, people felt like we were all united. You could even see a shift from police officers. You could see them go from being on the attack to being pacified. There was no longer a threat. Everyone enjoyed the music, and we were there for Elijah.”
Before he began playing, Hughes said, an officer in a cruiser had followed him into the empty lot and quickly questioned him. Hughes told the officer, who wasn’t in riot gear, that he had come to play his violin and honor Elijah. The officer let Hughes set up and play.
Once Hughes started playing, the protesters moved from the police lines and surrounded his truck to listen, mourn and honor McClain.
“I felt like I was in a little bit of a war zone,” Hughes said. “I felt like I needed to remain calm, move quick and focus. I was just ultra-focused on getting my PA set up. There was zero shakiness. I knew that the music was a bigger weapon than any other weapon out there — I knew that music was the biggest weapon. I knew music was the weapon to make the chaos stop.”
Hughes is a professional violinist who has performed for Barack and Michelle Obama twice. He has played with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Boettcher Concert Hall.
Hughes has performed with orchestras around the world and with rock groups including the Foo Fighters. Hughes regularly plays corporate events for companies including Lockheed Martin, Google and Microsoft.
But, he wasn’t attending the vigil as a professional musician. Instead, he had come to the vigil as part of the community of violinists joining together to honor McClain, who had taught himself to play the guitar and violin.
It wasn’t Hughes’ professional experience that got him to the right place at the right time to stop the violence.
“I kind of grew up doing those street performances on the 16th Street Mall (in Denver),” Hughes said. “I learned how to just put yourself into a position where you could reach the largest number of people. So that’s what I did. I used that strategy. Of course, this time it looked like a battlefield. That’s what it turned into. But later it turned back into a peaceful honoring of Elijah’s life.”
There was no guarantee the crowd would stop once Hughes began playing. He knew there was a risk. The crowd had fallen back around him. The police line was just 5 feet away when he stood to play. He could see tear gas rising into the air. There was a risk that the moment he stood on his truck, police could target him.
“I was afraid I was going to get hit,” Hughes said. “I wondered to myself, ‘Oh my God, am I going to get shot?’”
Hughes said he found the courage because he knew McClain was there that night giving him and others strength. By serendipity or luck, a group of violinists had retreated to his truck. He encouraged them to stay and play with him. Hughes even offered the other musicians shelter in his truck while he finished setting up his PA.
“Everyone was super shaken, wide-eyed,” Hughes said. “We didn’t know if it was going to turn super ugly. Officers had what looked like assault rifles. Some of them were holding their rifles, pointing their rifles, and it was just kind of a desperate situation.”
Hughes is a tall Black man who has been held at gunpoint by the police before. When he was in his 20s, he was driving home with a white friend. Just yards from his house in Park Hill, Denver, a police car’s lights flashed to pull him over. Hughes stopped in his driveway. Before Hughes could roll down his window, the officer was pointing his gun at the vehicle.
Hughes and his friend followed the officer’s order, exited the car, and lay on the ground. Within moments, a dozen other officers arrived pointing their guns at the two men. Some of the officers began searching Hughes’ car while others held their guns on Hughes and his friend. They didn’t ask for consent to search the vehicle or offer any probable cause.
“I was asking, yelling, ‘What am I on the ground for?’ But no answers,” Hughes said.
Finally, the officers relented, let Hughes and his friend up, and let them go inside the house. The officers didn’t give a reason for the search that night.
Hughes, his friend and their families demanded to know why they were stopped. They were eventually offered an apology by the Denver Police Department and told the officers were searching for a shooting suspect in a similar car. The immediate need to catch the suspect was given as the justification for the officers’ actions.
“I was so shaken, so afraid. It has caused me some trauma, dreaming about it and thinking about it, just having that experience,” Hughes said. “I was hoping no one slips and pulls the trigger and kills. I remember the anger on the cops’ faces as they were pointing their pistols at me. It was a terrible thing that I think about to this day.”
Hughes has been deeply moved by the Black Lives Matter movement and by McClain’s story — in part because of his experiences as a Black man. Now he is using his violin as a musical activist.
“I would say music can speak louder than I ever could,” Hughes said. “The vigil was the most powerful moment I have ever experienced musically, showing me what the power of music can do. I have never seen music transform a hostile violent volatile situation to what it was meant to be.”
The Aurora Police Department said in a statement that the officers deemed the protest illegal after protesters threw rocks and knocked down a portable steel barrier.
Police body cams show the barricade being overturned. The video also shows members of the crowd standing in place of the barriers, arms out, preventing the group from moving beyond the barriers or advancing toward the police.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman called for a special meeting of the Aurora City Council to investigate the Police Department’s actions the night of the vigil.
Hughes believes the vigil was still able to honor Elijah despite police actions. Still, had the music not been there, the night could have ended differently.
“I think the people were able to save the vigil and make it something even bigger because of the way the resurrection to remembrance happened,” Hughes said. “The people and the other musicians, once we engaged in music and in celebration, I felt like it was a wonderful honor. I feel it was a successful honor of Elijah’s memory.”
Hughes said the next step to honor McClain’s memory is to seek justice for his death.
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