Three Police Officers, Two Paramedics Indicted In Connection With Elijah McClain’s Death

BLACK LIVES MATTER Posters affixed to wrought iron gates at Lafayette Park at 16th and H Street, NW, Washington DC on Thursday afternoon, 27 August 2020 by Elvert Barnes Photography via Wikimedia Commons

Two years and a week from his death, three police officers and two paramedics have been indicted on charges related to Elijah McClain’s arrest and subsequent cardiac arrest that left the 23 year old brain dead.

The Denver Post:

Three Aurora police officers and two paramedics will face criminal charges, including manslaughter, in connection with the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

A state grand jury indicted Aurora police officers Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema, former officer Jason Rosenblatt and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec on 32 counts, according to an indictment made public Wednesday by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

The indictment comes just over two years after McClain, 23, died after being violently detained by the officers and injected with the sedative ketamine by paramedics.

All five face charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Officers Roedema and Rosenblatt face a count of second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury and one count of a crime of violence related to the second-degree assault charge.

Paramedics Cooper and Cichuniec also face a second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury, one count of second-degree assault for recklessly causing bodily injury by means of a deadly weapon (ketamine) and one count of second-degree assault for a purpose other than lawful medical or therapeutic treatment for administering ketamine to McClain.

The two paramedics also face two counts of crime of violence for each of the assault charges.

The charges brought by the grand jury mark the first time the officers and paramedics involved in McClain’s death have faced any punishment for their actions that night.

McClain’s mother Sheneen has been demanding prosecutors file criminal charges against those involved since his death. Her demands were echoed by thousands across the country in the summer of 2020 after people protesting the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer took up McClain’s cause and launched him into the national conversation.

On Wednesday morning, Sheneen McClain said she was overwhelmed by the indictments.

“It’s been a two-year battle just to get to this point,” she said. “It’s huge to know they’re indicted. But I know it’s not over. We still have to go to trial.”

The public pressure caused Gov. Jared Polis in June 2020 to designate Weiser as a special prosecutor to investigate the death, which led to Weiser calling in January for a state grand jury to investigate McClain’s death and weigh any potential criminal charges.

At a Wednesday morning news conference, Weiser said he had a choice between reviewing the records of former Adams County District Attorney Dave Young, who had declined to prosecute, or to call a grand jury that would be authorized to gather new facts about what happened. He chose to call the grand jury. That body finished its work on Thursday, Weiser said.

McClain was walking to a convenience store to purchase tea the night of Aug. 24, 2019, when someone called 911 to report a suspicious person. The three Aurora police officers contacted McClain as he returned home.

When McClain refused to stop walking, the officers tackled him to the ground, handcuffed him and used a carotid choke hold to block the flow of blood to his brain. Officers ignored McClain’s pleas to leave him alone. Paramedics injected him with 500 mg of ketamine, a powerful sedative, before taking him to the hospital.

McClain suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital, where he was later declared brain dead. He died Aug. 30, 2019, after being removed from life support.

Adams County’s then-District Attorney Dave Young cleared the police officers of any criminal wrongdoing and Nick Metz, Aurora’s police chief at the time, determined the officers had not violated any of the department’s policies.

Back in 2020 Dennis Sanders writing in his piece “Don’t Forget: Black Lives Matter” invoked the name of Elijah McClain as part of a all-too-long list:

While people were deciding if we can watch Gone with the Wind anymore or why we’ve been using racist pancake mix, the House and Senate were working on separate bills to deal with police brutality. The Senate bill failed to pass the Senate and while the House bill passed in the Democratic House, it won’t be taken up in the Republican Senate. Partisan politics have stopped any meaningful change from taking place. What could have happened had people put as much energy in destroying statues of abolitionists? What if people called their representatives in state capitals and Washington, demanding change to policing? If you want to tackle structural racism, you must work for actual systemic change. Qualified immunity, the fleecing of poor black and brown people with fines such as what took place in Ferguson, Missouri, banning chokehold, these are genuine changes that help dismantle structural racism. It’s far more important to me we stop the police from using chokeholds than it is to worry about the woman on a box of pancake mix.

I recently watched the special by comedian Dave Chappelle called 8:46, named after the time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck. There was some comedy in the special, but for the most part it was Chappelle expressing his rage at the shameless murder of an African American man. His anger was about the injustice that so many African Americans have faced in the past and in the present. This half-hour special from a comedian expressed what I wish I was hearing more from leaders and even people on Twitter. Somewhere out there another young black man or woman, another Elijah McClain or Ahmaud Aurbrey or Breeonna Taylor or Philando Castile will have an unhappy encounter with the police. Another young life will be taken. What in the world are we doing to prevent this horrible event from happening?

The trial dates for those indicted in the death of Elijah McClain have not yet been set.