Charles Koppa (Poppa Kappa) has done some investigative reporting on this case and we find numerous discrepancies between the police and media version of the event from actual facts. The case was typical until it ended in the homeowner’s untimely death in what police reported was a gun battle. Current reports indicate that the property is “investor hold.”
Kurt Aho was a 64 year old man with cancer. His illness made him walk awkwardly but he was completely lucid according to his daughter. Police swat team members shot him dead outside his home apparently under the mistaken belief that he was drunk (by observing his uneven gait when he walked) and that this was a case of Suicide by Cop.
Aho was in modification negotiations with Bank of America, who took over Countrywide loan servicing in the merger of those companies. His daughter reports that he thought the modification was done and that the matter was settled. But that didn’t stop a paneled truck from driving up with two occupants claiming they owned the house as a result of a foreclosure sale that day which Aho had been told was canceled due to the modification. Koppa reports that when he recently called the servicing agent they reported that the property was “on beneficiary hold.”
The title record is unclear, but it seems that the men who said they own the property were told they were “given” the property in exchange for fees worth $105,000. The fair market value of the home was $220,000 even at distressed prices.
According to Aho’s daughter he challenged the men on their right to be on his property, asking them for proof of the sale. They admitted they had no such proof since the “paperwork” had not been completed. He ordered them off the property and they refused to leave. He called his daughter to report what was going on and then grabbed his weapon and told the men if they didn’t get off his property he would shoot the tires on their van. They apparently remained, and he fulfilled his promise — he shot the tires on the van.
At this time, without a police report, we are unsure who called the police. Six squad cars including a SWAT team showed up and Aho and his house were under siege. He was calm, sitting on his air conditioning compressor when a rubber bullet hit him, obviously fired by police. He fired back with neighbors saying he obviously was aiming at the top of the police van. Police returned fire and he was dead.
Now Tiffany and Bosco, the law firm that handles the largest number of foreclosures in the area, is attempting to evict Kurt Aho, even though he is dead. His daughter has moved into the house and is attempting to fend off the attempt but needs help. From what we have seen the loan was securitized and the entire foreclosure procedure was improper even if there had been no negotiations on modification.
So to Recap, we have an improper foreclosure based upon the usual array of fabricated assignments in a securitized loan where the real creditors (investors) were neither identified nor even notified. Aho’s daughter wishes to pursue a wrongful death claim against BofA, Tiffany and Bosco, and law enforcement.
Man killed after shooting at police, neighbors ask why
| Reported by: Mitch Truswell Email: mtruswell@abc15.com Reported by: Katie Fisher Last Update: 10/01/2009 5:46 am |
PHOENIX – The day after the shooting of a 64-year-old man, neighbors are asking if it had to happen.
Kurt Aho was shot and killed Tuesday night near 31st Avenue and Bell Road.
He had been living in his home for nearly 30 years, but the home had recently fallen into foreclosure and was sold at a public auction on Tuesday.
When the new owners arrived at the property, they told 64-year-old Aho they were the new owners, and asked if he needed help moving out.
Police say Aho became distraught about losing his home and began to open fire, firing four rounds at the two men’s cars. The two men, a 49-year-old and a 42-year-old, then called police.
Officers arrived at the scene, near Bell Road and 35th Avenue, around 4:30 p.m. and said they saw Aho standing in the cul de sac with a gun in his hand.
Police tried talking to Aho for over an hour and reportedly asked him to put the weapon down as he walked in and out of the house before approaching the police department’s “Bearcat”, a specialty vehicle for officer protection, in a threatening manner.
Police said Aho began shooting at officers’ vehicles, so police shot at the man using rubber bullets.
According to officials, the rubber bullets were ineffective, and Aho raised his handgun and began firing at the vehicle and officers. That is when police reportedly shot and killed him.
Aho was pronounced dead at the scene.
Neighbors told ABC 15 that Aho had been trying to work with the mortgage company to keep his house.
Denise Montesquiou says, “He knew he was in trouble and he was trying to work it out. I don’t have a bad word to say about Kurt, right or wrong.”
Another neighbor, Yair Lavi, heard that Aho was dealing with cancer, for the second time.
Lavi says there was no reason to kill Aho.
“They had a sharpshooter on top of this house, on top of that house, and three of them behind a tree. Just shoot him in the hand and he’s no longer a threat.”
Police say the investigation is continuing.
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