Former Space Force sergeant slapped with 54-year prison term for shooting teens who tried to steal his car

A former US Space Force sergeant has been sentenced to more than five decades in prison for fatally shooting a 14-year-old boy and wounding another teen during a botched carjacking outside his Colorado home.

According to CBS News Colorado, Orest Schur, 29, confronted two teenagers dressed in black who were attempting to break into his Hyundai Elantra outside his Aurora home in 2023. Prosecutors said Schur, then 27, retrieved a pistol and chased the suspects after they fled in another vehicle.

As he chased them, Schur fired 11 rounds, striking both teens, and their getaway car crashed into a backyard fence four blocks away from Schur’s home.

Fourteen-year-old Xavier Kirk was shot in the head and back and died at a hospital. His 13-year-old accomplice, who was driving the car, was shot in the back but survived after reaching a relative’s home and was taken to a hospital. Investigators found no evidence that either teen was armed.

Schur was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. He was convicted in June of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder and faced a maximum sentence of 80 years in jail.

Last week, Judge Caryn Datz sentenced him to 54 years in prison. “This was vigilante violence at its worst, and now a young man is dead,” said Adams and Broomfield Counties District Attorney Brian Mason. “The defendant took the law into his own hands, chasing down a fleeing vehicle and opening fire on its occupants.”

During sentencing, Schur broke down in tears and apologized, saying, “I am sorry for the events that occurred that night, for the pain, for the grief and trauma that have followed, and for the impact that my case had on so many lives.”

Kirk’s family members slammed Schur in their courtroom statements. “What Mr. Schur did to my son and his friend, to chase them down and execute him, over a car that they didn’t even take, is ludicrous,” Kirk’s father said.

“Kids make mistakes,” another family member said. “We’re not trying to excuse any wrongdoing of Xavier. The part that’s messed up is Orest Schur’s car was never stolen.”

The 13-year-old survivor wrote a statement that prosecutors read: “An adult chose to use deadly force against two unarmed teenagers. That is not justice, that is not safety, that is not accountability. I survived, but I am not the same. My friend didn’t survive at all. And no matter what we did that night, I didn’t deserve to be shot, and Xavier didn’t deserve to die.”