A Colorado jury found Thursday that police officer Randy Roedema, on trial for several weeks, was guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a young black man who died after being brutally restrained and who had been injected with a sedative. He will receive his sentence on January 5.
The same jury found Jason Rosenblatt, another officer tried jointly with Roedema, not guilty of the manslaughter and assault charges, finding that he had not exceeded police protocol. “It’s America divided,” McClain’s mother, Sheneen, told the Denver Post after the verdict was read, furious with the jury’s decisions.
This trial is the first of three which must concern the McClain affair, prior to the George Floyd affair. Three police officers were charged with the young man’s death, as well as, for the first time, two paramedics.
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 and a warm jacket, was walking in the street, the police sent a patrol.
” I can not breathe “
Although he was not suspected of any crime, nor armed with any weapon, the three police officers wanted to hinder the young man 9 seconds later. Panicked, he 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, a dose of 500 milligrams, which caused a cardiac arrest in the ambulance, leading to his brain death three days later.
“I was just going home…I’m an introvert and I’m different…I’m just different. That’s all, I’m sorry,” the boy cried, according to a recording released well after the fact, the first investigation having been botched, and the police having lied, in particular by claiming that their body cameras had been damaged.
Throughout the trial, the prosecution highlighted the unnecessary brutality of the police and the fact that they had given false information to the paramedics, which contributed to them administering a large dose of ketamine. “When Elijah is handcuffed to the ground, he says over and over: I can’t breathe. Please help me,” prosecutor Jonathan Bung charged during opening arguments, adding that McClain vomited after the strangulation and drowned in vomit.
“Complications related to ketamine administration”
Defense attorneys argued that it was ketamine that killed McClain and that paramedics were solely responsible. A revised autopsy report in September 2022 concluded that McClain died from “complications related to the administration of ketamine following forcible restraint.”
The episode initially received little attention, but the case gained notoriety following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death sparked international outrage and fueled protests against racial injustice and police brutality.
The paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec, will be tried together in a month. The third police officer, Nathan Woodyard, will be tried separately. He was the first on the scene but the investigation showed that he showed restraint.
2023-10-13 06:14:00
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