The second trial of a police officer in the death of Elijah McClain concluded Monday, acquitting the suspended Aurora police officer of all charges, nearly a month after a Colorado jury convicted one officer and acquitted another in the 23-year-old unarmed Black man’s fatal encounter with Aurora police in 2019. McClain’s death galvanized protests against police brutality and racial injustice that swept the country in 2020 and spurred state and local policy changes for the kind of chokehold restraints and ketamine injections used during his arrest.
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Officers are on trial for Elijah McClain’s death. Here’s what to know.
Nathan Woodyard, 34, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless manslaughter after he placed McClain in a carotid hold while trying to arrest him. The Colorado jury found him not guilty.
The jury split its verdict in the case’s first trial, convicting suspended Aurora police officer Randy Roedema, 41, of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault but acquitting fired officer Jason Rosenblatt, 34, of the same charges.
A trial of the two responding paramedics began Nov. 29.
McClain was walking home from a convenience store near his apartment on the night of Aug. 24, 2019, when he was detained by police responding to a 911 caller who reported the young massage therapist as looking “sketchy.” McClain was wearing a black ski mask because of a medical condition that made him cold, family said, and he was carrying a shopping bag when police approached.
McClain was listening to music through headphones and didn’t initially respond when officers called to him. They then tackled McClain before Woodyard placed him in a carotid hold. Responding paramedics injected him with ketamine, a powerful sedative. McClain never regained consciousness after the arrest and was taken off life support several days later.
News of McClain’s death remained mostly local for eight months until George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in 2020 sparked scrutiny of cases in which unarmed Black people were killed, including Breonna Taylor in Louisville and Ahmaud Arbery in suburban Georgia.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) in a 32-count indictment charged five Aurora first responders: Roedema, Rosenblatt, Woodyard and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper, 49, and Peter Cichuniec, 51, who jointly face trial later this month.
All five defendants pleaded not guilty.