The fight isn’t over yet. It’s only just getting started. According to CBS News, a grand jury has chosen to deliver justice to the McClain family nearly two years after an unarmed Black man, Elijah McClain, was died after being placed in a chokehold by Aurora police and injected with a sedative during an August 2019 arrest. After Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser started an independent investigation into McClain’s death in June 2020, the grand jury decided in January if the cops and paramedics involved should be indicted.
After a local district attorney declined to press charges in 2019, citing inconclusive evidence surrounding Elijah’s death, this happened. It appears that the pressure from Attorney General Weiser and the public, who were both very interested in the matter after George Floyd’s death, was not in vain. Attorney General Weiser said today that a grand jury indicted three Aurora police officers and two paramedics in his death on 32 counts. Officers Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema, former police officer Jason Rosenblatt, and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec from Aurora Fire and Rescue.
Each of the five people has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide on one count each. Additional assault and crime of violence charges have been filed against two of the cops. Due to injecting the sedative ketamine, the two paramedics are now charged with assault and recklessly causing bodily injury with a lethal weapon. The paramedics’ charges do not end there. For providing ketamine to Elijah without his agreement for a reason other than legitimate medical treatment, they face assault charges of “intentionally causing stupor, unconsciousness, or other bodily or mental damage or injury.”
LaWayne Mosely, Elijah’s father, issued a comment about the charges through his attorney, Mari Newman. “Nothing will bring my son back, but I am relieved that his killers will eventually be brought to justice,” he said. The Aurora Police Department is also being investigated by Attorney General Weiser. As additional information about this case becomes available, we will keep you informed.
