2023-09-15 13:52:43
This Friday, the trial of two police officers, Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, begins in Colorado, accused of driving a 23-year-old black boy to his death one night in the summer of 2019, during a check. Extremely rare fact: paramedics are also being prosecuted in this case, they will be judged later.
Elijah McClain, 23, was walking home in suburban Aurora, near Denver, on August 24, 2019, with a bag containing cans of iced tea and listening to music through his headphones. Alerted by an anonymous phone call informing them that a young black man with a “shady” appearance, wearing a balaclava, was walking in the street, the police sent a patrol.
Although he was not suspected of any crime, the three police officers wanted to arrest the young man, who, probably panicked, struggled. After laying him on the ground and handcuffing him, they put him in a strangulation hold twice, at the level of the carotid artery. Paramedics then gave Elijah a powerful sedative, ketamine, which caused a cardiac arrest, leading to his brain death three days later.
Police claimed their cameras were damaged
America had not yet known the George Floyd affair, and the global “Black lives matter” movement which vehemently denounced racist violence by the police. The three officers – Rosenblatt, Roedema, and Nathan Woodyard – had claimed that their body cameras had been destroyed in the fight, to justify the absence of images. The investigation had been botched, with police officers even attending the first autopsy which concluded that the cause of death was impossible to determine.
The Aurora Police Association union called the accusations by Elijah’s family a “hysterical overreaction.” “Unfortunately, Mr. McClain died due to a combination of his decision to violently resist arrest and a pre-existing heart condition,” the union said.
In spring 2021, after protests against police violence during which Elijah’s name was mentioned, an independent investigative group formed at the request of the city of Aurora accused the police of having no legal basis for arrest him, restrain him or search him, also ensuring that the paramedics should never have injected the sedative and that the five men had made false declarations. A few months later, after a legal appeal by American media, a new version of the autopsy report was published, attributing Elijah’s death to an excessive dose of ketamine, after having been immobilized by the force of the police.
“I’m just different. That’s all, I’m sorry”
In the meantime, lawyers for Elijah McClain’s family had described the young man, a masseur, as gentle and peaceful, “different”, “introverted” and very cold, which explained the wearing of his balaclava despite the softness of the weather this evening in August 2019. Of small build, he weighed only 64 kg. The exploitation of the police officers’ degraded body cameras revealed an audio recording, in which Elijah is heard sobbing. “I can’t breathe, please stop.” I was just going home… I was just going home… I’m an introvert and I’m different. Coming home…I’m just different. I’m just different. That’s all, I’m sorry,” he cried.
The city of Aurora agreed in November 2021 to pay $15 million to the McClain family to settle a civil rights lawsuit. This is part of the criminal aspect which opens this Friday. Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt will stand trial for about a month on charges of involuntary manslaughter, criminal negligence and 30 other charges. Last January, they pleaded not guilty and have never spoken publicly.
The two paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, have also pleaded not guilty. In June 2020, a memorial mural was painted in McClain’s honor in Denver, featuring him alongside George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, another victim of police violence against African Americans.
Since 2020, in Colorado, police officers are no longer allowed to perform chokeholds and paramedics are asked to no longer administer ketamine to people exhibiting erratic behavior.
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