Protest to demand justice for the death of Elijah McClain in November 2020, Colorado.KEVIN MOHATT / Reuters
A federal grand jury in Colorado on Wednesday indicted the three police officers and two paramedics involved in the death of Elijah McClain on 32 counts, including manslaughter and criminal negligence manslaughter.
State Attorney General Phil Weiser has announced the criminal charges nearly two years after the 23-year-old African-American's death at the hands of the police.
During the arrest, the officers applied a strangulation key to him.
"I can't breathe," the young man yelled before losing consciousness.
The same words that George Floyd would say months later before he was assassinated by a white policeman.
More information
The "I can't breathe" of the thousands of people who have demonstrated against racism
On August 24, 2019, the Aurora Police Department, a city east of Denver, Colorado, received a 911 call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask, waving his hands and looking like a "bum." That person was McClain, who was walking home after buying a drink at a store. Three officers arrested him and applied the strangulation technique. During the struggle, according to the recordings of the body cameras of the police, the African American said that he was "different", that he was unarmed, and that he could not breathe. He claimed until he lost consciousness. In the last images he is seen handcuffed and vomiting with a policeman leaning on him.
The paramedics who attended McClain injected him with ketamine, a surgical anesthetic with great hallucinogenic potential. According to court documents, he was pricked a dose and a half more than was appropriate for his weight. Within five minutes, according to a federal lawsuit by McClain's family, the young masseur, skilled with the violin, stopped breathing. At the hospital, he was declared brain dead and life support was withdrawn. Family members of the victim explained that McClain wore a mask because he was anemic and caught a cold easily.
"We are here today because Elijah McClain is not and should be," said Wiser at a news conference. Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis appointed him special counsel last year to investigate McClain's death amid pressure from the streets in the wake of Floyd's death. In 2019, a district attorney said he could not charge the officers involved in McClain's death because the autopsy could not determine how he died.
An independent investigation into McClain's death released in February revealed a string of mistakes made by officers Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec of Aurora Fire Rescue.
"At the time, I said that our investigation would be guided by a commitment to the facts, by careful and diligent work, and that it would be worthy of the public trust and trust in our criminal justice system," Weiser said.
Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits
Subscribe here
The thirty charges announced on Wednesday come after months of investigation, racial protests and the McClain family's clamor for justice. "This indictment serves as a powerful reminder to all members of law enforcement that no one is above the law," said Mari Newman, an attorney for McClain's father, LaWayne Mosley, in a statement. "The hysterical and overreaction to this case has seriously damaged the police department," the police union said in a statement quoted by AP.
McClain's death resonated last year in the massive demonstrations against racial injustice and police abuse that led to George Floyd's passing.
Several banners read "I am different."
Former agent Derek Chauvin, responsible for the death of the Black Lives Matter symbol, was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
Follow all the international information on
and
, or in
our weekly newsletter
.