Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old American Black man from Aurora, Colorado, was killed as he was walking home from a convenience store. Three police officers and two paramedics were reportedly responsible for his death during the violent encounter.
The investigation found that after forcibly holding McClain to the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back, one of the police officers, Nathan Woodyard, put him in a chokehold. On the other hand, the paramedics sedated McClain by administering Ketamine. The autopsy revealed that an overdose of Ketamine was the cause of McClain’s death.
All three police officers—Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt, and Randy Roedema—and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec faced indictment on 32 total counts of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Who was Elijah McClain and what happened to him?
Elijah McClain, a massage therapist for four years, shared an apartment with his cousin before his death. Police had never arrested or charged him with a crime. Those close to McClain described him as someone who exuded exceptional gentleness. However, no one knew something disastrous was waiting just around the corner.
On the evening of August 24, 2019, a civilian in Aurora called 911 to report a male walking south around Billings Street and Evergreen Avenue. The individual was wearing a ski mask and flailing his arms. A few moments later, three Aurora Police officers—Woodyard, Rosenblatt and Roedema—confronted McClain and began questioning him.
According to the police report, during a struggle with McClain, Woodyard, Rosenblatt, and Roedema noted that McClain knocked off their body cameras. Woodyard forcibly held McClain to the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back and applied a chokehold twice. Upon arrival, paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec administered an excessive dose of ketamine. While on the scene, McClain experienced cardiac arrest.
Three days after arriving at the hospital, medical professionals declared him brain dead, following which they removed him from life support on August 30, 2019. The first autopsy report in the case yielded inconclusive results. After massive protests, authorities released an amended autopsy report in September 2022 that listed the cause of death as “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint.”
Aurora police and paramedics were found to have made substantial errors while dealing with Elijah McClain. Investigators involved with the case of the 23-year-old’s death stretched the truth to discharge the involved officers. Moreover, detectives neglected a thorough investigation following Elijah McClain’s death, the report highlighted.
2 out of 3 accused were acquitted of all charges
The authorities put all the culprits on trial. In October 2023, the court found Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault. The court acquitted Rosenblatt of all charges. Meanwhile, Nathan Woodyard’s trial started on October 17, and after three weeks of arguments, the jury acquitted Woodyard as well.
