The city of Aurora has agreed to pay the family of Elijah McClain $15 million to resolve a federal civil rights lawsuit filed over McClain’s death.
According to CBS4, three anonymous sources with knowledge of the prospective arrangement verified the amount because they were not permitted to discuss the settlement.
Officials admitted that an agreement had been reached, but that the details would not be released until the transaction was completed.
McClain, 23, died a few days after an altercation with Aurora police officers in 2019.
On Aug. 24, 2019, Aurora police stopped McClain as he walked home from a convenience shop. McClain “looked sketchy,” according to a citizen who called the cops.
When Aurora officers approached McClain, the verbal altercation escalated into a physical altercation, resulting in a chokehold.
He then went into cardiac arrest after being administered ketamine, a potent anesthetic. McClain didn’t have any weapons on him.
A few days after the confrontation, he was taken off life support and died. His cause of death was later declared to be “undetermined” by an autopsy.
Sheneen McClain, his mother, filed a federal lawsuit in 2020 against the city of Aurora, as well as the officers and firefighters who were involved in her son’s murder.
Her attorneys stated last month that the federal civil rights lawsuit had been settled in principle, resolving all claims.
They did not provide financial information because Sheneen McClain and Elijah McClain’s biological father, Lawayne Mosley, are still working out the mechanics of the settlement.
A court date has been set for this Friday.
The $15 million wrongful death settlement would be higher than the $12 million wrongful death settlement in the case of Breonna Taylor,who was shot and killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky.
While the McClain payout is less than the $27 million paid to the Floyd family by the City of Minneapolis, it will undoubtedly be the largest in Aurora Police history
