'It's a Step Toward Justice': Aurora, CO Police Officers, Paramedics Indicted for 2019 Death of Elijah McClain
Two years after Elijah McClain's death, a grand jury has indicted three Aurora, Colorado, police officers, and two paramedics on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Police officers stopped the 23-year-old massage therapist as he walked home from a corner store. A 9-1-1 caller reported he looked suspicious.
Officers allegedly put him in a chokehold, claiming McClain tried to grab an officer's gun.
Paramedics on the scene injected him with Ketamine, a powerful sedative. McClain never regained consciousness and was later declared brain dead at a hospital.
"I've been praying for all of it. It's what I wanted," said Lawayne Mosley, McClain's father. "My son fought for his life. He begged for his life."
"It is a step toward justice, because you know I'm still praying for them to be in prison," said Sheneen McClain, the young man's mother.
His family says they want Elijah remembered as a gentle young man with a bright future.
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Meanwhile, the state of Colorado has banned the use of chokeholds and the use of Ketamine by paramedics to subdue suspects.
The news of the indictments is the latest chapter for the city of Aurora Police Department, which has been plagued by allegations of misconduct against people of color, including an officer charged this summer with pistol-whipping a Black man.
Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson, who took over last year and has pledged to work to restore public trust, said the department will continue to cooperate with the judicial process.
"I know this has been a long-awaited decision for Ms. McClain and her family. This tragedy will forever be imprinted on our community," she said in a statement.
Officers Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard, and Jason Rosenblatt and fire department paramedic Jeremy Cooper and fire Lt. Peter Cichuniec was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Roedema and Rosenblatt also were charged with second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury and one count of a crime of violence related to the assault charge. Cooper and Cichuniec also each face three counts of second-degree assault.
In 2019, a district attorney said he could not charge the officers because an autopsy could not determine how McClain died.
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis ordered Colorado state Attorney General Phil Weiser to open a criminal investigation last year amid nationwide protests over racist policing, and the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI said they were looking at opening a civil rights investigation. Weiser's office is conducting a probe into the overall conduct of Aurora police, the first under the state's new police accountability law.
