Amid the protests across the U.S. against excessive police force against people of color, Elijah McClain’s name has become another rallying cry.
McClain, a 23-year-old Black man in the Denver suburb of Aurora, died in August after police officers confronted him as he was walking to a store. Officers put him in a chokehold and injected him with a sedative.
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Amid the protests across the U.S. against excessive police force against people of color, Elijah McClain’s name has become another rallying cry.
WHO IS ELIJAH McCLAIN?
HOW DID HE DIE?
After McClain was kept 15 minutes on the ground, paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of Ketamine to calm him down. McClain subsequently suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and was declared brain dead on Aug. 27. He was taken off life support three days later.
Three officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the incident was investigated by Denver and Aurora police, as well as the district attorney’s office.
Aurora's City Council is debating whether to hire another third-party investigator. Mayor Mike Coffman has set a July 6 deadline for the council to decide.
Federal authorities also said they were considering an investigation into photos of Aurora police released last week.
Officers Kyle Dittrich, Erica Marrero and Jaron Jones — none of whom confronted McClain in August — smiled and mockingly placed each other in a chokehold in the photos taken in October near a memorial for McClain.
The Aurora Police Association called the investigation “a rush to judgment.”
Here's what we know:
File-In this June 6, 2020, file photo, a demonstrator gestures while joining hundreds of others at a rally for Elijah McClain outside city hall in Aurora, Colo. McClain died in August 2019 after being stopped by three Aurora Police Department officers while walking through the east Denver suburb of Aurora. (Philip B. PostonSentinel Colorado via AP, File)
WHO IS ELIJAH McCLAIN?
McClain was a massage therapist who planned to go to college, his younger sister, Samara McClain, told The Denver Post. McClain’s friends and family said he was as “a spiritual seeker, pacifist, oddball, vegetarian, athlete, and peacemaker who was exceedingly gentle,” according to the Colorado Sentinel.
Samara McClain said her brother often wore masks when he was outside because he had a blood condition that caused him to become cold easily. She also said that her brother was walking to a corner store to get tea for a cousin when someone contacted police to report a suspicious person wearing a ski mask on a warm evening and waving his arms as he walked down a street on Aug. 24.
File-In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, demonstrators gather for a press conference at the Aurora Municipal Center after the police department released the body camera footage of Elijah McClain, who died after being stopped by three Aurora officers in August 2019. (Philip B. PostonSentinel Colorado via AP,File)
HOW DID HE DIE?
According to a report by District Attorney Dave Young, Aurora officers responding to the report said McClain was uncooperative when they confronted him. They said they took McClain to the ground when he tried to grab one of their holstered guns. One of the officers then put him in a specialized control hold, pressing against his carotid artery.
Police body camera footage shows McClain telling officers: “Let go of me. I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.”
File-In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, attorney, Mari Newman, right, hugs Sheneen McClain during a press conference at the Aurora Municipal Center after the police department released the body camera footage of McClain's son, Elijah, being stopped while walking by three officers from the Aurora Police in late August 2019. McClain died three days later from injuries sustained during the stop. (Philip B. PostonSentinel Colorado via AP, File)
After McClain was kept 15 minutes on the ground, paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of Ketamine to calm him down. McClain subsequently suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and was declared brain dead on Aug. 27. He was taken off life support three days later.
A forensic pathologist working for the Adams County Coroner could not determine what exactly led to his death but said physical exertion during the confrontation likely contributed.
WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF THE INVESTIGATION?
File-In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, Mari Newman, the family attorney of Elijah McClain, speaks to the media during a press conference outside the Aurora Municipal Center after the police department released the body camera footage of Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colo. McClain died after being stopped by three Aurora Police Department officers while walking through the east Denver suburb in late August 2019. (Philip B. PostonSentinel Colorado via AP, File)
Three officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the incident was investigated by Denver and Aurora police, as well as the district attorney’s office.
Young said in a letter to then-Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz that he could not find indisputable evidence that Aurora officers or others used “unjustified” force" and that it was "improbable for the prosecution to prove cause of death beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury."
Aurora hired an attorney, Eric Daigle, to investigate, then terminated the contract when it was learned he had been a police officer in Connecticut.
File-In this June 6, 2020, photo, hundreds of protestors turn out at city hall to call attention to the death of Blacks at the hands of local police in Aurora, Colo. Demonstrators were rallying to point to the death of Elijah McClain in August 2019 after he was stopped by three officers of the Aurora Police Department while walking through the east Denver suburb. (Philip B. PostonSentinel Colorado via AP, File)
Aurora's City Council is debating whether to hire another third-party investigator. Mayor Mike Coffman has set a July 6 deadline for the council to decide.
Initial investigations by Aurora police and a district attorney produced no charges. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, citing appeals from the public, appointed the state's attorney general to reexamine a possible prosecution against the three officers.
The U.S. attorney’s office, the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI announced that they have been looking into a possible civil rights investigation since 2019.
This photo released by the Aurora Police Department, in Colorado, shows Officers Erica Marrero, from left, Jaron Jones and Kyle Dittrich. Jason Rosenblatt, one of three white officers who stopped Elijah McClain, has been fired over the photos showing colleagues reenacting the chokehold used before the Black man died in August 2019, according to documents from prosecutors. The officers shown in the photo have either been fired or have resigned, according to officials. (Aurora Police Department via AP)
Federal authorities also said they were considering an investigation into photos of Aurora police released last week.
WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE PHOTOS TAKEN AT MCCLAIN'S MEMORIAL?
Three officers were fired in early July over photos showing police reenacting a chokehold used on McClain when he was arrested.
This photo released by the Aurora Police Department, in Colorado, shows Officers Erica Marrero, from left, Jaron Jones and Kyle Dittrich. Jason Rosenblatt, one of three white officers who stopped Elijah McClain, has been fired over the photos showing colleagues reenacting the chokehold used before the Black man died in August 2019, according to documents from prosecutors. The officers shown in the photo have either been fired or have resigned, according to officials. (Aurora Police Department via AP)
Officers Kyle Dittrich, Erica Marrero and Jaron Jones — none of whom confronted McClain in August — smiled and mockingly placed each other in a chokehold in the photos taken in October near a memorial for McClain.
Jason Rosenblatt one of the officers who arrested McClain in August, received the photo and responded by text with “Haha," and was fired along with Dittrich and Marrero for conduct unbecoming of an officer. Jones resigned last week.
Aurora Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson called the photos “a crime against humanity and decency.”
Aurora Police Department Interim Chief Vanessa Wilson discusses the actions of police officers who reenacted the chokehold used on Elijah McClain before his death, at the site of the incident during a press conference, Friday, July 3, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. One of the white officers who stopped McClain was fired over photos showing colleagues reenacting the chokehold used on the Black man before he died last year, authorities said Friday. (Philip B. PostonThe Aurora Sentinel via AP)
The Aurora Police Association called the investigation “a rush to judgment.”
Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.”
Sheneen McClain, right, is hugged by family attorney Mari Newman at the memorial site across the street from where McClain's 23-year-old son, Elijah, was stopped by Aurora, Colo., Police Department officers while walking home as family members hold a news conference Friday, July 3, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. Three Aurora Police Department officers have left the force after photographs surfaced of them reenacting the chokehold used on McClain across the road from the memorial. (AP PhotoDavid Zalubowski)