Three police officers and two paramedics have been charged in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, Colorado attorney general Phil Weiser (D) announced Wednesday.
Weiser had launched a grand jury investigation into McClain’s death in January.
In August 2019, McClain was walking home from a convenience store wearing a ski mask when someone called 911 to report a suspicious person. Officers who arrived on the scene tried to arrest him using a carotid hold within seconds of their interaction with him. Paramedics later injected him a sedative, Ketamine. He suffered a heart attack and was later removed from life support.
According to CBS News, the officers justified the use of force by saying McClain resisted and showed extraordinary strength, but body cam audio says otherwise.
“The audio captured by the body worn camera contains two sharply contrasting narratives — on the one hand, Mr. McClain pleading, apologizing, and expressing pain, and on the other hand, the officers continuing to perceive resistance,” the report of a different independent investigation found.
Officers Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt and fire department paramedic Jeremy Cooper and fire Lt. Peter Cichuniec were all charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Roedema and Rosenblatt also each face a charge of 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.
“Our goal is to seek justice for Elijah McClain, for his family and his friends,” Weiser said at a news conference. “He was a son, a nephew, a brother, a friend. When he died he was only 23 years old. He had his whole life ahead of him. His family and his friends must now go on and live without him.”
