Elijah McClain
Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black massage therapist, died following forceful detention by police and subsequent sedation by paramedics in Aurora, Colorado on August 24, 2019. A 9-1-1 call from a citizen indicated that a man in a ski mask, later identified as McClain, was acting suspiciously. The caller also indicated that he did not believe anyone was in danger, and that he believed McClain was unarmed. The three police officers that were involved in the incident claimed that their body cameras were knocked off during the struggle with him. While en route to the hospital, paramedics administered ketamine to sedate McClain, who went then into cardiac arrest. McClain died seven days later after being removed from life support. McClain's autopsy was inconclusive
In June 2020, amid nationwide protests and unrest over police brutality following the death of George Floyd, Aurora lawmakers requested a new, third-party investigation into McClain's death.
On the evening of August 24, 2019, an Aurora citizen called 9-1-1 after seeing McClain walking down the street wearing a ski mask and flailing his arms. Friends of McClain interviewed after the incident claimed that this "arm flailing" was most likely just him dancing, as he is believed to have been listening to music at the time of the call. The same caller affirmed during the call that he did not believe McClain was armed and that he did not believe any person, including McClain, was in immediate danger. According to police, when they confronted McClain he resisted officers and attempted to reach for an officer's gun during the struggle. An attorney representing McClain's family offered a different version of events, saying that the officers involved slammed McClain into a wall immediately after he was apprehended.
Officers held McClain on the ground for 15 minutes. Officer Nathan Woodyard applied a chokehold around McClain’s neck. Paramedics injected him with 500 mg of ketamine as a sedative to reduce his agitation. McClain vomited several times while being held down. McClain suffered two heart attacks while he was taken to the hospital, and was pronounced brain dead on August 30, 2019.
The body cameras on all three of the police officers “fell off” of their uniforms during the encounter, although the audio can still be heard. During the recording, when one of the body cameras was still attached to an officer, another officer can be heard telling him to move his camera. The attorney representing McClain's family accused the officers of purposely taking off their body cameras to create a false allegation that McClain reached for a gun, although this was never supported by any evidence during the subsequent investigation.
According to a police report, the coroner could not determine the exact cause of death and therefore listed McClain's death as "undetermined". Despite the cause of death being undetermined, the same coroner stated that it may have been an accident resulting from a idiosyncratic drug reaction, or that his death could have also been caused by an asthma attack
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