Officers smiled and posed for strangling photos where McClain was killed.
Colorado police officers who took disturbing photos at the memorial site where Elijah McClain was placed in a police choke and then died, all of whom were fired from the Aurora Police Department, Acting Police Chief Vanessa Wilson announced Friday.
Four officers were involved in the incident. Officer Jaron Jones resigned earlier this week.
Wilson announced Friday that the remaining officers involved, Erica Marrero, Kyle Dittrich and Jason Rosenblatt, have been fired.
Rosenblatt did not appear in the photos, but was canceled after he replied “haha” when the images were sent to him by text message. He did not report them either. Rosenblatt was the only officer involved in the photos who actually responded to the arrest that ended in McClain’s death.
“We are ashamed, we are sick and angry,” Wilson said at a press conference on the behavior of the former officers.
“While the accusations in this internal affairs case are not criminal, it is a crime against humanity and decency,” he said, calling his actions “reprehensible.”
“It shows a lack of morals, values and integrity and a judgment that I can no longer trust to allow them to wear this badge,” he said.
Wilson also revealed the photos, which were taken on October 20, 2019, publicly for the first time. Officers not only smile at the scene of the tragedy, but one of them shows them recreating the carotid control that other officers put on McClain before his death.
McClain was a 23-year-old unarmed black man who died days after being strangled and sedated by police when walking to his home in Aurora after buying iced tea at a local corner store on August 24, 2019, according to his family. attorney.
The Aurora Police Association called the internal investigation that led to the officers’ termination by the photos “a hasty trial.”
“The appearance of impropriety is obvious. It is extremely concerning to the Aurora Police Association that Acting Chief Wilson is willing to ignore the rights of our members and the due process that is afforded to all police employees,” said the union in a statement.
The union added that they think Wilson “is not fit for the position he currently holds and should be removed from the final list of candidates to be the next Chief of the Aurora Police Department.”
Bill Hutchinson of ABC News contributed to this report.
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