Three Aurora, Colorado police officers linked to controversial photos taken at the site of a monument to Elijah McClain were fired on Friday, according to reports.
The layoffs came after a fourth officer linked to the photos resigned from the Aurora Police Department earlier in the week, FOX 31 of Denver reported.
The photos were taken last October, about two months after McClain, 23, died after a police arrest that involved strangling him.
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In at least one of the photos, smiling officers appear to mock the strangler at the memorial site.
From the left are Aurora (Colorado) Police Department agents Erica Marrero, Jaron Jones, and Kyle Dittrich. Jones resigned earlier this week and Marrerro, Dittrich, and Officer Jason Rosenblatt (not pictured) were fired on Friday. (Aurora Police Department via AP)
Officers Kyle Dittrich, Erica Morrera and Jason Rosenblatt were fired on Friday. Officer Jaron Jones resigned.
A photo shows Jones with one of his arms around Dittrich’s neck as Morrera watches. Rosenblatt was identified as an officer who replied “HaHa” after the photo was shared in an online group chat.
Rosenblatt was previously one of three officers reassigned to “noncompliance” duties in connection with McClain’s death last August. The other two officers were identified as Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema.
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Woodyard is the officer who applied the choke to McClain, The Associated Press reported.
One reason for the reassignment was that the three officers faced death threats for their ties to the McClain case, a police spokesperson told FOX 31.
Meanwhile, Mari Newman, a lawyer representing the McClain family, released a statement after Friday’s layoffs.
“It is disgusting to think that they are so insensitive to the murder of an innocent young black man that they think it is appropriate to joke about it and send photos,” Newman said, according to FOX 31.
Sheneen McClain, right, and family attorney Mari Newman are seen on July 3, 2020, at the memorial site across the street where the Aurora, Colorado, police officer arrested her 23-year-old son, Elijah, in last august. (Associated Press)
Other McClain supporters noted that while four officers left force on the photos, Woodyard and Roedema, linked to the police arrest after which McClain died, still have their jobs.
“Rosenblatt was fired not for killing Elijah, not for murdering Elijah, but for making fun of Elijah,” Terrence Roberts, a community organizer and family friend, told the AP. “That is the culture we are struggling with, where a police officer can murder a black man, a black boy, and keep his job and stay in the force so he can make fun of this boy.”
The Mayor of Aurora condemned the alleged behavior of the dismissed officers.
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“The actions of the officers in these photos are appalling and inexcusable and will not be tolerated by either the Acting Chief or myself,” Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said, according to FOX 31.
Acting Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said she spoke to the four officers immediately after learning of the photos in late June.
“We are ashamed, we are sick and we are angry,” Wilson said, according to the AP. Officers may not have committed a crime, but the photographs were “a crime against humanity and decency,” he added.
Acting Chief of the Aurora Police Department Vanessa Wilson addresses journalists on July 3, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado (Associated Press)
The officers’ cell phones were collected as part of an investigation, Wilson told FOX 31.
On Tuesday, a review board decided that the four officers should be fired, but the officers were given 72 hours to produce any new information they wanted the board to consider. Jones resigned shortly afterward and the other officers were fired on Friday, FOX 31 reported.
The Aurora Police Association, the union that represents the officers, opposed Rosenblatt’s dismissal, arguing that he was not involved in taking or distributing the photos, and had not even seen them until months later.
“Although this officer was not involved in taking or distributing the photos, and the photos were sent to him months after they were first taken, he was fired from his job as an Aurora police officer with immediate effect,” the unit wrote. in a Facebook post. .
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Police put McClain in a choke during a clash on August 24. McClain suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and was later declared brain dead. He was removed from life support less than a week later.
The Colorado layoffs came as police-public interactions are drawing increased scrutiny after George Floyd’s May 25 death in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death led to charges against four Minneapolis officers, including a murder charge by one of them, and sparked weeks of riots and protests across the United States.
Lucas Manfredi of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
