Three police officers and two paramedics in Aurora, Colorado have been criminally charged in the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old innocent Black man who was tackled by police in 2019.
The cops placed McCalin placed in a chokehold, and paramedics injected him with a large amount of the powerful sedative ketamine, reports Democracy Now.
McClain had a cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and died several days later.
The local district attorney refused to file criminal charges, citing lack of evidence despite video of the incident.
Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser announced on Sept. 1 that criminal charges were filed against the police and paramedics.
Colorado state Representative Leslie Herod told Democracy Now that McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, played a key role in passing police reform laws in the state:
But it was Sheneen’s voice and her work that led to Colorado passing the largest and most impactful police accountability law in the country, and really working on three bills that allowed this day to happen, that called ketamine a use of force by law enforcement, that ensured that we could have special investigations when someone dies at the hand of or at the direction of law enforcement. We banned chokeholds, and we ended qualified immunity. And Sheneen, in her work, was central to all of that.
(Source: Democracy Now, Photo Credit: McClain Family)