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| Dirty cops being charged with Elijah McClain's murder. |
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Three cops and two paramedics are indicted for murder. The Aurora, Colorado Police is under the federal radar. It has a history of deadly confrontations with Black and Brown residents. It has five known incidents where cops either used deadly force or abuse of power towards suspects of color.
This incident involving Elijah McClain has now taken another turn. These cops and two paramedics are being indicted on manslaughter and other charges. McClain, a Black man who had no criminal history was put in a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative two years ago, Colorado's attorney general said Wednesday.
The 23-year old's death gained widespread attention during last year's protests against racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd.
McClain's pleading words were captured on body camera. "I'm just different" -- were posted on signs at protests and spoken by celebrities who joined in the calls to indict these dirty cops.
Some Karen called 9-1-1 to report a suspicious man walking down the street and the cops confronted him. He was wearing a scarf over his face and walking home with a bag.
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| The dirty cop immediately gets aggressive with Elijah. |
The family described McClain as a gentle and kind introvert, filled social media, including how he volunteered to play his violin to confront cats at an animal shelter.
The Aurora Police Department has been plagued by allegations of misconduct against people of color, including an officer charged this year for pistol whipping a Black man. The department was in the news for holding a Black woman and children at gunpoint because of a mistaken license plate.
All the suspects, who are white are being criminally charged with negligent homicide. The charges carry up to 30 years in the iron college if convicted in Colorado.
The Associated Press has sought comment from lawyers for the defendants. The Aurora Police Association said there was no evidence the officers caused McClain’s death.
“The hysterical overreaction to this case has severely damaged the police department,” the union said in a statement.
At a brief news conference, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the goal was to seek justice for McClain and his loved ones.
“He was a son, a nephew, a brother, a friend,” Weiser said. “He had his whole life ahead of him.”
Mother Sheneen McClain “is overwhelmed emotionally by this news and appreciates the hard work of Phil Weiser and the rest of his team. There is not a day that goes by that she does not think of her son Elijah,” according to a statement from her lawyer, Qusair Mohamedbhai.
It’s very rare for officers to face criminal charges in on-duty deaths, and it's almost unheard of for paramedics to be charged, said Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” he said. The fact that a grand jury saw the evidence and decided what charges to file is an indication of a strong case, Piquero said.
Facing pressure during nationwide protests last year, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis ordered Weiser to open a new criminal investigation. In 2019, a district attorney said he could not charge the officers because an autopsy could not determine how McClain died.
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| The Aurora Police literally killed a man on camera. |
It's one of several investigations, including separate reviews of McClain's arrest commissioned by the city and a comprehensive review of the Police Department. The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI also announced a civil rights investigation into McClain’s death, while Weiser’s office is conducting a similar probe into the agency, the first under a new Colorado police accountability law.
Aurora’s highly critical review did not find any evidence to justify officers stopping McClain as he walked home from the store on Aug. 24, 2019, after a 911 caller had reported a man wearing a ski mask and waving his hands who seemed “sketchy.” His family said McClain wore the mask because he had anemia that caused him to get cold easily.
Police body camera video shows an officer approaching McClain on the sidewalk and saying, “I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious.”
The officer turns McClain around and says, “Relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation." As other officers help restrain McClain, he asks them to let go, saying, “You guys started to arrest me, and I was stopping my music to listen.”
The officers’ body cameras come off as they move McClain to the grass, but an officer can be heard saying McClain grabbed one of their guns. McClain tries to explain and sometimes cries out or sobs. He says he can’t breathe and was just on his way home.
“I’m just different. I’m just different, that’s all. That’s all I was doing. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why were you attacking me? I don’t do guns. I don’t even kill flies,” he said.
One officer eventually retrieves his camera, which shows McClain handcuffed, lying on his side and periodically vomiting as another officer leans on him.
Paramedics arrived and injected the 140-pound (63.5-kilogram) McClain with 500 milligrams of ketamine — more than 1 1/2 times the dose for his weight. The fire department is allowed to use the drug to sedate combative or aggressive people, but there’s a lack of police training, conflicting medical standards and nonexistent protocols that have resulted in hospitalizations and even deaths when it’s used during police encounters.
Within five minutes, according to a federal lawsuit from McClain’s family, he stopped breathing. He was later declared brain dead and taken off life support.
A pathologist who conducted an autopsy said a combination of a narrowed coronary artery and physical exertion contributed to McClain’s death. Dr. Stephen Cina found no evidence of a ketamine overdose and said several other possibilities could not be ruled out, including an unexpected reaction to ketamine or the chokehold causing an irregular heartbeat.
The family's lawsuit alleges McClain died as a result of a dramatic increase of lactic acid in his blood caused by excessive force used by police over about 18 minutes, combined with the effects of the ketamine. They claim that police continued to “torture” McClain after he was restrained, a result of the department’s history of “unconstitutional racist brutality.”
The chokehold used on McClain has been banned by police departments and some states, including Colorado, following Floyd’s killing.
The attorney general’s announcement comes after three Aurora officers, including Rosenblatt — one of those charged in McClain's death — were fired and one resigned last year over photos mimicking the chokehold used on the 23-year-old.
Police Chief Vanessa Wilson vowed change but spent her first days in the job last year apologizing after officers put four Black girls on the ground and handcuffed two of them next to a car that police suspected was stolen but turned out not to be.
In July, an Aurora police officer was charged with assault after being captured on body camera video pistol-whipping and choking a Black man during an arrest. Another officer was charged with not intervening as required under the new police accountability law.
The suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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