What to know about Elijah McClain’s death after Colorado officers placed on leave
The death of Elijah McClain could get a fresh look as federal authorities consider launching a civil rights investigation in the case.
In a joint statement Tuesday, the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI said a review of McClain’s death began last year and is ongoing. The feds said they’ll also look into newly surfaced photos showing several Aurora police officers at a memorial honoring the young Black man.
McClain, 23, died after his arrest by Aurora police in which he was stopped and placed in a chokehold while walking home from a convenience store on Aug. 24, 2019.
Much of the incident was captured on police body camera video.
“We’re gathering further information about that incident to determine whether a federal civil rights investigation is warranted,” federal authorities said of the photos and McClain’s arrest. “We will have no further comment until both of those reviews are completed.”
Meanwhile, the officers who appeared in the pictures have been placed on paid leave, the Associated Press reported.
Aurora Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson announced the officers’ suspensions late Monday after they were “depicted in photographs near the site where Elijah McClain died,” she said in a statement. It’s unclear when the photos were taken or why the officers were near the memorial for McClain.
“This investigation will be publicly released in its entirety promptly upon its conclusion,” Wilson added. “This will include reports, photographic evidence obtained, officers’ names, and my final determination which can rise to the level of termination.”
The interim chief offered few other details about the photos, but a report by CBS Denver alleges the images show officers re-enacting the chokehold restraint used on McClain.
McClain’s case has gained renewed attention after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed in police custody after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for about eight minutes while three other officers failed to intervene. The incident set off nationwide protests and calls for police reform.
The four officers involved in Floyd’s death have been fired and face criminal charges, McClatchy News reported.
McClain was stopped by three white officers in 2019 after someone called to report a “suspicious” person walking down the street in a mask, said Aurora police spokesman Officer Matthew Longshore, the AP reported.
“Stop right there. Stop. Stop. ... I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious,” police body cam video captures one officer telling the young man.
Relatives said McClain often wore a ski mask because he was anemic and got cold easily.
As McClain tenses up, the officer orders him to relax “or I’m going to have to change this situation,” according to the video.
The officers then force the man’s arms behind his back before taking him to the ground. Authorities have said McClain ignored their commands to stop walking and resisted as officers tried to arrest him, the AP reported.
That’s when one of the officers placed him in a chokehold — the kind that restricts blood flow to the brain, according to the outlet. At one point, McClain gets sick and starts vomiting.
“Let go of me. I am an introvert,” he tells officers, according to the video. “Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.”
To subdue him, paramedics injected McClain with 500 milligrams of the sedative ketamine, ABC News reported, citing police.
The young man, a self-taught violinist with a love for kittens, was placed in the back of an ambulance where he suffered cardiac arrest. Doctors declared him brain dead, and McClain died three days later when his family took him off life support.
“Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. That was a part of me,” his mother, Sheneen McClain, told ABC News. “There’s no way to put a band-aid on that, he’s always gonna be gone.”
A pathologist was unable to determine McClain’s cause of death but said “physical exertion during the confrontation” likely contributed to it, AP reported.
District Attorney Dave Young declined to bring charges against the officers involved in McClain’s arrest, saying “he could not prove one way or the other” if the officers’ actions led to his death.
One year later, the McClain family is still seeking justice. In a statement released through their attorney, they called the alleged photos a “new low” for the department.
“This is a department where officers tackled an innocent young Black man for no reason, inflicted outrageous force — including two carotid chokeholds — for 15 minutes as he pled for his life, joked when he vomited and threatened to sic a dog on him for not lying still enough as he was dying,” the family said, according CBS Denver.
“They tampered with their body cameras to hide the evidence. They exonerated the killers ... And now this,” they added.
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 11:49 AM with the headline "What to know about Elijah McClain’s death after Colorado officers placed on leave."