3 Aurora officers fired for chokehold photo
Aurora’s interim police chief on Friday fired two officers who posed for a photo re-enacting a chokehold at the site of Elijah McClain’s violent arrest, and terminated a third officer who received the picture mocking the 23-year-old’s death last summer.
Jason Rosenblatt, the officer who received that photo and a second image, was one of the three officers involved in McClain’s death, but later was cleared of criminal or departmental wrongdoing.
“We are ashamed, we are sickened, and we are angry about what I have to share,” interim Chief Vanessa Wilson said at a news conference. “While the allegations of this internal affairs case are not criminal, they are a crime against humanity and decency. To even think about doing such a thing is beyond comprehension and it is reprehensible.”
Officers Erica Marrero and Kyle
Dittrich were fired for posing for the photos in October with officer Jaron Jones, who resigned Tuesday after learning he would be terminated. The official cause for firing all of the officers: conduct unbecoming.
Wilson said she fired Rosenblatt because he received the photos via text and “replied with the inappropriate comment ‘ha ha.’ “
“I am disgusted to my core,” Wilson said.
The photos, released Friday, were taken Oct. 20 near a memorial for McClain. Dittrich, Marrero and Jones had just completed a call for service in the area. Dittrich took the photos, then texted them to Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard, two of the three officers involved in McClain’s death, according to the internal investigation file.
During the investigation, the officers explained to Wilson that they sent the photos hoping to “cheer up a friend,” she said.
Woodyard was part of the investigation but wasn’t disciplined because he didn’t reply to the text and deleted the photos, Wilson said, adding that the officer told her he was “devastated by this and disgusted.”
Dittrich told internal affairs investigators that the chokehold photo was intended to cheer up Woodyard, according to documents released Friday.
“I thought it would be funny if we took a photo there,” Dittrich told investigators, referring to the roadside memorial to McClain. “…Officer Jaron Jones put his arm around my head kind of in a half buddy-buddy, but also sort of as homage to the carotid control hold.”
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said he agreed with Wilson’s decision, but added that the city must act beyond the firings, including completing the independent investigation into McClain’s death.
“We must ensure that we have the answers our community needs, city leadership needs, and most importantly, Elijah’s family deserves,” he said in a statement.
“We will have a police department that reflects our community’s demographics, values and culture. We cannot and will not accept anything less. This is an important step in that process, and it’s a process that will continue in order to restore trust.”
Wilson first acknowledged the internal investigation into the officers Monday after KCNC-4 reported that multiple officers posed for photos in which they pretended to use a carotid chokehold on each other near the 1900 block of Billings Street in Aurora, where McClain was stopped by police on Aug. 24.
That same chokehold method was used by police on McClain before a paramedic injected him with the heavy sedative ketamine. He died days later.
The officers had been on paid administrative leave since June 25, when Wilson said she first learned about the photographs.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the Aurora Police Association, the union representing the department’s officers, alleged the internal investigation was conducted too hastily and violated officers’ due process.
“It appears that interim Chief Wilson’s participation in the chief selection process drove her decision making in this case,” the union’s board wrote. “The appearance of impropriety is obvious.”
Wilson said she met with McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, on Friday to show her the photos.
“Bad apples come from rotten trees”
McClain’s family and community members gathered after the interim chief’s news conference at the location where police arrested McClain “to express their outrage at the city of Aurora,” attorney Mari Newman said in a statement.
“APD’s conduct is no different than that of white supremacists of at the height of the Jim Crow South who snapped smiling pictures of themselves at the scenes of brutal, lethal lynchings of black men, keeping the images of torture as souvenirs or even turning them into postcards to send to friends,” Newman said.
Newman and Sheneen McClain both held iced teas, as Elijah had the night he was stopped by police walking in that area.
“All officers involved in the photo situation and the death should be fired and they should not be allowed in any other department,” Newman said.
Sheneen McClain did not speak, but Newman added that she’s worried about the police union’s criticism of the chief’s decision to fire the officers.
“When the Aurora Police Association withdraws support of somebody for firing officers, we know we’ve got a police department that’s rotten to the core,” Newman said.
Dozens of people stood in the spot where Elijah McClain was violently arrested last year, chanting his name. They held his picture, homemade signs, candles and iced tea.
“It’s not about bad apples because bad apples come from rotten trees,” speaker Elisabeth Epps said. “They stood by and let this happen. You cannot reform your way out of this. … They want kinder, gentler policing. No. We want no policing.”
Investigations at state and federal levels
McClain’s death has turned into a national rallying cry against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death in an encounter with Minneapolis police five weeks ago. Last weekend, thousands rallied outside Aurora’s police headquarters and another demonstration was planned for Friday evening.
As protests mounted, Gov. Jared Polis, in an unprecedented move, appointed Attorney General Phil Weiser as special prosecutor to investigate the case and potentially bring charges against the officers.
Meanwhile, a coalition of federal authorities revealed this week that since last year they have been looking into whether there are grounds for a federal civil rights investigation.
And Aurora city leaders are deciding on a third-party investigator to delve into the officers’ actions last August.
The three officers who arrested McClain — Rosenblatt, Woodyard and Randy Roedema — were cleared of criminal wrongdoing and internal policy violations. They were taken off street duty last month for their own safety, a police spokesperson previously confirmed.