The Colorado Attorney General is investigating whether the Aurora Police Department “allows patterns and practices … that could deprive individuals of their constitutional rights” after Elijah McClain, a young Black man, died last year in custody of officers.
The announcement of the investigation Tuesday came the same day that McClain’s family filed a federal lawsuit alleging that his civil rights were violated on August 24, 2019, when officials placed him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with a large dose of ketamine, a powerful sedative. McClain, 23, died days later.
Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday that an investigation had taken place “a few weeks ago,” and that it was authorized as an authority as part of a sweeping bill for accountability for legislation that Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, signed up in June.
Weiser declined further comment.
The Aurora Police Department tweeted that Weiser contacted police chief Vanessa Wilson on Tuesday and that the department is “steadfast in our commitment to transparency and regaining the trust of our community.”
Wilson also called for “full cooperation with this research.”
The Aurora Police Association, a union representing more than 240 officers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Aurora Police Department drew extra checks this month after a viral video showed officers firing at a group of Black women and girls who were forced to lie face down in a parking lot while some of them were boarding. The group roared and shouted, with one young girl crying, “I want my mother!”
The officers had stopped their car with the belief that it was stolen because it shared the plate number of a stolen motorcycle, said Faith Goodrich, spokeswoman for Aurora police. But after finding out the car was not stolen, police then “arrested everyone, unrestricted, made efforts to explain what happened, and apologize,” Goodrich said.
Brittney Gilliam, the driver of the car, told MSNBC last week that the department’s apology was “not good enough for me” and that officers at the scene were not sorry.
Although Goodrichsaid officers were trained in “height-risk stops” if they believed a car was stolen, officials also acknowledged that there is no written policy on such stops and “officials may exercise discretion based on the information provided. they have on time. “
Wilson later apologized for what she said was “traumatic and horrific.”
“It’s sad that it happened,” she told NBC affiliate KUSA, adding that the department should look into new training to ‘drive change’ and give officers the opportunity to say, ‘Hey we need to stop this, and feel OK to do that. ‘”
David Lane, a civil rights lawyer representing Gilliam, said his Aurora police firm had ‘charged dozens and dozens of times for the same kind of behavior’.
“They are there to occupy and intimidate,” he said of police. “They are not there to serve and protect.”
McClain’s death drew renewed attention in the weeks following the assassination of George Floyd, a Black man who died in May while serving as a Minneapolis police officer, leading to national protests against systematic racism and police brutality.
McClain, a massage therapist, was walking home after buying ice tea from a shop in the corner, according to his family, when he confronted Aurora police, who responded to a report from a “suspicious person.” McClain was wearing long sleeves and a ski mask at the time, which his family said he needed because he had a blood condition that made him feel cold.
The incident, which was captured on the bodycam of officers, escalated quickly. “[T]he man resisted contact, a fight ensued, and he was seized, “police said in a statement.
According to the family’s lawsuit, “in a span of eighteen minutes, Elijah was suspected of a process of needless and brutal force techniques and unnecessary, unforgettable medication, the combined effects of which he could not survive.”
Authorities said officials were carrying out a carotid check on McClain, a type of chokehold intended to restrict blood to the brain to make a person unconscious. Paramedics were called to the scene, and McClain was injected with ketamine to calm him down after body comb wrecked him on the ground and said, ‘I can not please, please,’ and vomited. He apologized for spitting.
About seven minutes after receiving the drug, McClain was found to have no pulse in the ambulance and went into a heartbeat, according to a report last fall by a local prosecutor, Dave Young. Medics were able to reimburse McClain, but he was later pronounced brain dead, and he was deprived of life support less than a week later.
The Adams County Coroner’s official determined that McClain’s death was due to “unspecified causes,” and that “evidence does not support the prosecution of a murder,” according to Young’s report. Young refused to serve prosecutors against the officers.
But the Crown leader did not rule out that the chokehold, in addition to the ketamine, may have contributed to his death.
In June, Aurora police banned carotid checks. That same month, Polis appointed a special prosecutor to investigate McClain’s death, and separately, federal authorities said she was being questioned as a civil justice investigation.
In addition, the three officers involved in McClain’s seizure were transferred to “non-enforcement” duties in late June.
But the department continued to receive negative attention. In July, three other Aurora police officers were fired from the force after an internal investigation found they were holding a selfie photo session near a memorial to McClain in October. A fourth officer dismissed as well.
Wilson said last week that she only learned about the photo in June. The officers, she said, told investigators that they were “trying to cheer up a friend by sending that photo,” but that she was not convinced.
“We are ashamed, we are sick and we are angry,” Wilson said at the time. “I’m disgusted at my core.”
The Aurora Police Association said the officers were denied fair hearing.
