Left inset: David O’Grady (Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Taylor Dawn Last (GoFundMe). Background: The home where David O’Grady allegedly killed Taylor Last in Aurora, Colo., on September 7, 2025 (Google Maps).
New details have been revealed in a case against a Colorado man who claimed he “accidentally” shot his wife in the chest while “clearing his gun” and then “attempted CPR for about an hour” before calling 911.
David O’Grady, 37, stands accused of one count each of murder in the first degree and domestic violence, according to Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office records, as Law&Crime previously reported.
The underlying incident occurred on the morning of Sept. 7, at the couple’s residence on Shawnee Way in Aurora. The shooting took the life of the defendant’s wife, 29-year-old Taylor Dawn Last.
Upon his initial arrest, O’Grady said he waited roughly an hour to call for help because of his CPR attempts. Now, however, authorities believe he waited several hours to make that phone call.
But that’s not all.
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That initial charging document says O’Grady told a dispatcher he was “clearing his gun last night, but accidentally discharged his firearm and hit his wife in the chest.”
While dispatchers heard the hourlong version of the story, O’Grady allegedly told responding sheriff’s deputies his wife had been dead for several hours by the time they arrived at around 7:45 a.m., according to court documents recently obtained by The Denver Post.
At the time of the shooting, the couple’s two children, a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old, were sleeping in the house, according to the original affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. Also present was O’Grady’s mother.
Deputies were allowed in the home by the defendant and found Last “lying on her back on the ground, with her left arm on her chest,” the affidavit says. The document describes the victim’s body as “cold and stiff to the touch, indicating that Taylor had been dead for a while.”
In his initial interview, O’Grady allegedly admitted he and Last had been arguing about some kind of a party. As the argument unfolded, “David said he knew the gun was loaded, fired a round into the bed, and then, as Taylor was coming into the room, aimed it in Taylor’s direction and pulled the trigger,” according to the affidavit.
Last was struck in the chest by the bullet and died, authorities say.
As the shot rang out, the other inhabitants took note.
The couple’s children slept in a shared bedroom upstairs across a “narrow hallway” from their parents’ bedroom, according to law enforcement. The children allegedly told investigators they heard “loud arguing” and a “bang” that caused them to “jump” out of bed, the affidavit says.
The children also allegedly said they saw O’Grady “had thrown something” at Last and then she fell “onto the bed with her hands up in the air,” the affidavit alleges. The couple’s children also said they saw “[b]roken colorful things” on the ground in the immediate aftermath, authorities allege. But, notably, “none” of those purported items were visible when law enforcement arrived.
In a GoFundMe, Last’s aunt describes her niece’s slaying as “an unimaginable tragedy” and “tragic act of domestic violence” that now leaves her two children without their mom and dad.
“She was a loving mother to her two beautiful little girls,” the online fundraiser reads. “The unthinkable happened – their father was responsible for her death, and he is now incarcerated. This leaves these sweet girls without both of their parents.”
Chris Perez contributed to this report.
