Colo. officers, medics indicted in 2019 death of Elijah McClain

DENVER — Three suburban Denver police officers and two paramedics were indicted on manslaughter and other charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative in a fatal encounter that provoked national outcry during racial injustice protests last year.

The grand jury indictments announced Wednesday by state Attorney General Phil Weiser are the latest chapter for the police department in the city of Aurora, which has been plagued by allegations of misconduct against people of color.

McClain’s death helped inspire a sweeping police accountability law in Colorado, a ban on chokeholds and restrictions on the use of the sedative ketamine, both of which the indictment alleges contributed to his death. The charges were announced days after the second anniversary of when police stopped McClain on the street after a 911 caller reported a man who seemed “sketchy.”

“What I set out to do is still not over, but I’m halfway there. I’m halfway there,” McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, told The Associated Press of her efforts to hold police accountable.

Officers Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt and fire department paramedic Jeremy Cooper and fire Lt. Peter Cichuniec were charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Marc Sears, president of Aurora’s branch of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the Sentinel Colorado newspaper that “our officers are innocent until proven guilty, and we stand by our brothers.”