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More than three million people had requested an investigation into McClain's death
Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP
They had put him in a stranglehold and injected him with anesthetic, Elijah McClain died three days later: three police officers and two paramedics had to answer in court two years after the death of the 23-year-old.
A panel of lay judges called the Grand Jury in the state of Colorado has brought charges against all five.
As Colorado's Attorney General Phil Weiser said, the defendants in the Elijah McClain case are charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide, among other things.
The death of the 23-year-old McClain was "a loss for all of us," said Weiser.
"He had his whole life ahead of him, and his family and friends must now live without him."
McClain died three days after a police operation in the nearby Denver city of Aurora in August 2019.
The police had put the unarmed 23-year-old in a stranglehold, and paramedics injected him with a strong sedative.
McClain suffered a heart attack.
The police had responded to a call that a "suspicious" black man with a ski mask over his face was behaving "suspiciously".
One officer said McClain grabbed another officer’s service weapon during the argument.
According to his family, the 23-year-old wanted to buy iced tea and wore the ski mask to protect himself from the cold.
Investigation after protests
After initially no charges had been brought against the police officers and paramedics, Colorado's Governor Jared Polis opened a special investigation in June 2020 in the face of massive public pressure.
More than three million people, including numerous celebrities, filed an online petition for an investigation into McClain's death.
A few weeks earlier, the death of the African American George Floyd in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis caused horror across the country and led to protests by the Black Lives Matter movement.
The case brought police violence against blacks to the center of public attention.
kim / AFP / Reuters