An investigation following the murder of Elijah McClain unveiled a pattern of racial discrimination against Black people.
On Wednesday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser released the report summing up the 14-month probe into the Aurora Police Department in Colorado. The document stated that the law enforcement agency displayed a “pattern” of “violating state and federal law through racially biased policing, using excessive force, and failing to record legally required information when interacting with the community.”
Officers with the department are two and half times more likely to use excessive force against people of color than white people. Also, Blacks in Aurora are almost twice as likely to be arrested as white citizens.
The August 2019 unjustified killing of 23-year-old McClain prompted authorities to look into the police department’s practices. McClain was walking home wearing a ski mask when Aurora police officers violently attacked him after someone reported a suspicious person in the area. The young man’s family says he wore the face covering to protect him from the cold since he was anemic.
The officers placed the unarmed Black man in a carotid chokehold as he pleaded with them to release him because he couldn’t breathe. When EMTs arrived on the scene, they immediately injected him with 500 milligrams of ketamine, a medication used primarily for starting and maintaining anesthesia. The innocent massage therapist who played the violin at a local animal shelter suffered a heart attack as he laid in the ambulance and was declared brain dead at a nearby hospital. He was removed from life support days later.
Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard, and Jason Rosenblatt of the Aurora Police, and two Aurora Fire and Rescue paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Lieutenant Peter Cichuniec, each face one count of manslaughter and one count each of criminally negligent homicide, in addition to several other charges related to McClain’s death.
