Aurora, Colo., to pay $15M to family in police killing settlement

The city of Aurora, Colo., will pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Elijah McClain, an unarmed 23-yearold Black man who died after law enforcement officers put him in a chokehold while he was on his way home in 2019.

Aurora officials said the settlement was the largest ever paid by the municipal government, and a lawyer for McClain’s father said it was the biggest for a civil rights case in Colorado’s history. The agreement to drop the civil suit filed against the city last year was approved after a mediation hearing at a federal court.

“There is nothing that can rectify the loss of Elijah McClain and the suffering his loved ones have endured,” said Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson. “Significant changes have already occurred and will continue to be implemented.” A lawyer representing McClain’s mother did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The $15 million figure is more than double the $6.5 million that Aurora paid to settle officer-involved lawsuits between 2010 and 2017.

McClain’s death received belated national attention after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota who was killed by a white police officer in May 2020. After Floyd’s death, which sparked a national racial reckoning, Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis ordered an investigation into McClain’s death. The state attorney general has also looked into whether Aurora police violated constitutional rights in the course of their operations.

The findings of Colorado Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser were damning. Aurora police engaged in repeated abuses against minorities, especially Black people, treated people of color differently from their white counterparts, repeatedly used excessive force and failed to properly document interactions with the public, according to the investigation.