COLORADO COP FIRED
One of the white officers who stopped Elijah McClain is fired over his response to photos.
AURORA, Colo. — One of the white officers who stopped Elijah McClain was fired over photos showing colleagues re-enacting the chokehold used on the Black man before he died last year, authorities said Friday. After getting a text message with the images, he replied, “haha.”
Police stopped Mr. McClain as he walked down the street in a ski mask last August for “being suspicious.” Aurora Officer Jason Rosenblatt tried to use a chokehold on the 23-year-old but couldn’t because of his position, so another officer did, a report from prosecutors said.
In October, Officer Rosenblatt received the photos from fellow officers who smiled as they mimicked a chokehold near where Mr. McClain was stopped, which had become a public memorial. The others were fired or resigned this week.
Mr. McClain’s death has become a rallying cry amid a national reckoning over police brutality and racial injustice, with the state reopening the case for possible criminal charges and federal officials looking into a civil rights investigation. In several places, the chokehold has been banned and other police reforms passed after nationwide protests.
A visibly shaken interim police Chief Vanessa Wilson assailed the officers involved with the photos, saying their explanation is that they were “trying to cheer up a friend by sending that photo.”
“We are ashamed, we are sickened and we are angry,” Chief Wilson said. The officers may not have committed a crime, but the photographs are “a crime against humanity and decency,” she added.
After an internal investigation, Chief Wilson fired Officer Rosenblatt and two officers who appeared in the photos, Kyle Dittrich and Erica Marrero, for conduct unbecoming of an officer. Jaron Jones, the officer pictured re-enacting the chokehold, resigned this week.
The Aurora Police Association called it “a rush to judgment.” The union for officers said on Facebook the investigation took nine days, while a standard internal affairs case takes months.
Several police agencies have taken swift action to punish officers, including those involved in George Floyd’s death May 25 in Minneapolis.
Facing increasing pressure, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis last week ordered the state attorney general to reopen Mr. McClain’s case after prosecutors last year cleared the officers who confronted him. Two of them, including the one that put Mr. McClain in a chokehold, are still on the force as authorities look into possible criminal charges.
Word of the photos emerged soon after Mr. Polis’ announcement. Aurora police launched an investigation last week after another officer reported the photos.
“The fact that three on-duty, inuniform police officers thought that it was appropriate to re-enact the murder, jokingly, shows that the department is rotten to the core,” said Mari Newman, the McClain family’s lawyer.
For Mr. McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, “it was just devastating to see that people were mocking the murder of her son,” Ms. Newman added.
People rallied near the memorial for Mr. McClain, chanting his name.
“Rosenblatt got fired not for killing Elijah, not for murdering Elijah, but for making fun of Elijah,” said Terrence Roberts, a community organizer and family friend.