Jeff Blitstein says his nephew Peyton Blitstein was a driven and motivated young man.
“He loved, you know, doing the young Marines. So, he wanted to go into military,” said Jeff.
Their family is very close-knit and Jeff, who doesn’t have kids of his own, loved watching his nephew grow.
“Watching him have goals and dreams and try to grow up and, you know, be like the young man, it was it was like, very cool,” said Jeff.
All of that was taken away just before Thanksgiving of 2021. Peyton and his friends were driving in a neighborhood in Southeast Aurora when a doorbell video showed former Greenwood Village police officer Adam Holen confronting the teens about speeding through the neighborhood.
The argument escalated and the video shows both Holen and Peyton Blitstein pulled out guns and fired. Peyton was hit and Holen tried to perform life-saving measures, but the teen died just after his 17th birthday.