Finally, Some Accountability For The Murderers Of Elijah McClain…

As part of a broad­er con­ver­sa­tion on race and polic­ing in the United States, yes­ter­day I spoke to the unabat­ed killing of African-American men, women, and chil­dren by over-mil­i­ta­rized police and the col­lu­sion of the var­i­ous gov­ern­ment agen­cies all the way up to the US Supreme Court in the fur­ther­ance of that genocide.
I named Elijah McClain in that arti­cle, who was mur­dered by cops in Colorado two years ago.

According to NBC News, Elijah McClain’s encounter with police in Aurora, a Denver sub­urb, began just after 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2019, after buy­ing iced tea from a cor­ner store. At the time, McClain, a mas­sage ther­a­pist, was wear­ing a ski mask — which he typ­i­cal­ly did because of a blood con­di­tion that made him feel cold, accord­ing to his family.
Three Aurora police offi­cers respond­ed to a report of a sus­pi­cious per­son wear­ing a mask and wav­ing his arms.
Bodycam video lat­er released showed offi­cers order­ing McClain to stop. He respond­ed that he was an intro­vert and “please respect the bound­aries that I am speaking.”
After ques­tion­ing him, the offi­cers grabbed McClain. One of them said he believed McClain had reached for a hol­stered gun and brought McClain to the ground. Aurora police said in a state­ment that he “resist­ed con­tact, a strug­gle ensued, and was tak­en into cus­tody.“Authorities said offi­cers applied a carotid con­trol hold on McClain, a type of choke­hold meant to restrict blood to the brain to ren­der a per­son uncon­scious. Paramedics were called to the scene. McClain was inject­ed with ket­a­mine to sedate him after police video showed him writhing on the ground, say­ing, “I can’t breathe, please,” and vom­it­ing. He apol­o­gized for vomiting.

About sev­en min­utes after he received the drug, McClain was found to have no pulse in the ambu­lance and went into car­diac arrest, accord­ing to a report released in the fall of 2019 by a local pros­e­cu­tor, Dave Young. Medics revived McClain, but he was lat­er declared brain dead and tak­en off life sup­port less than a week later.
According to Young’s report, the Adams County Coroner’s Office deter­mined that McClain’s death was due to “unde­ter­mined caus­es” and that the “evidence does not sup­port the pros­e­cu­tion of a homi­cide,” accord­ing to Young’s report. Young declined to press charges against the offi­cers.
But the coro­ner did not rule out that the choke­hold, in addi­tion to the ket­a­mine, may have con­tributed to his death.
Aurora police banned carotid con­trol holds last sum­mer, and sep­a­rate­ly, fed­er­al author­i­ties said they were review­ing whether a civ­il rights inves­ti­ga­tion is warranted.

In addi­tion, the three offi­cers involved in tak­ing McClain into cus­tody were moved to “nonen­force­ment” duties. Two remain employed by the depart­ment, while a third was one of three offi­cers fired in July 2020 after an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion found they held a self­ie pho­to ses­sion near a memo­r­i­al site for McClain. A fourth offi­cer also resigned as part of the scandal.
A law­suit filed by McClain’s fam­i­ly in August 2020 alleges that exces­sive force used by the offi­cers over a span of 18 min­utes caused an increase of lac­tic acid in his blood, and mixed with the ket­a­mine inject­ed into him, neg­a­tive­ly affect­ed his res­pi­ra­to­ry system.
An inde­pen­dent probe com­mis­sioned by the city of Aurora and released in February con­clud­ed police had no jus­ti­fi­ca­tion to stop or use force to detain McClain, and respond­ing para­medics sedat­ed him with ket­a­mine “with­out con­duct­ing any­thing more than a brief visu­al observation.”
According to the pan­el’s find­ings, the 5‑foot‑7, 140-pound McClain was giv­en ket­a­mine that would have been prop­er for a man weigh­ing 190 pounds.
The report sug­gest­ed a change in pol­i­cy for para­medics respond­ing to the scene with police and said they should not act as an “arm” of the depart­ment. (NBC NEWS)

Gov. Jared Polis appoint­ed Attorney General Phil Weiser as a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor in the case after activists demand­ed a prop­er inves­ti­ga­tion into the death of Elijah McClain.
Mister Weiser announced the 32-count indict­ment almost exact­ly two years after Mr. McClain’s death in August of 2019.
In announc­ing the charges, Weiser declared, “Our goal is to seek jus­tice for Elijah McClain, for his fam­i­ly and friends and our state,” Mr. Weiser said at a news con­fer­ence announc­ing the charges, the cul­mi­na­tion of months of inves­ti­ga­tion, protests, and calls for jus­tice by Mr. McClain’s fam­i­ly and friends.”

In all this, it is impor­tant to remem­ber that the Adams County Coroner, Monica Broncucia-Jordan, refused to call Elijah McClain’s cause of death what it is: homicide.
Dave Young sub­se­quent­ly opt­ed not to pros­e­cute the cops, a local Prosecutor, which fur­ther enraged the community.
Events sur­round­ing Monica Broncucia-Jordon office’s deci­sion not to name the cause of death a homi­cide but “unde­ter­mined” set off a dis­cus­sion in the Bromfield County Council. Her offices also pro­vid­ed coro­ner’s services.
Bromfield offi­cials approved con­tin­u­ing the con­tract with Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan but raised ques­tions on her role in inves­ti­gat­ing the Aug. 30, 2019, death of Elijah McClain after being vio­lent­ly arrest­ed by Aurora police.
Broncucia-Jordan, who’s been Adams County’s coro­ner since 2011, told the coun­cil in a let­ter on Dec. 17 she would not renew the con­tract because Broomfield’s elect­ed lead­ers “expressed a clear lack of con­fi­dence” in her office dur­ing the City Council meet­ing. Broncucia-Jordan did not attend the meeting.

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.