A Colorado police officer resigned before his boss’s impending announcement of his disciplinary decision over troubling photos allegedly linked to him and his colleagues that were taken near the scene of where Elijah McClain was put into a police choke and then died.
Officer Jaron Jones of the Aurora Police Department submitted his resignation amid local, state and federal investigations launched when images emerged of him and other officers posing near a memorial for McClain last week.
“In response to questions from the press, Jaron Jones, hired on October 31, 2016, resigned. Jones was one of the employees involved and represented in the #ElijahMcClain-related photo investigation,” Aurora police in a statement released Thursday. On twitter.
No further information was announced.
Acting Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson released a statement Monday saying she had removed several officers from street service and made investigating the photo a “top priority.”
A source familiar with the investigation told ABC News that Wilson met with his internal affairs review board on Tuesday and subsequently made a disciplinary decision. The decision has been sent to the officers in question, who have the option to appeal.
The photos, which have not been made public, were brought to the attention of the department’s Internal Affairs office by an Aurora police officer, Wilson said in his statement this week.
She said an “expedited investigation” was completed Monday night and that she plans to publicly publish the results of the investigation “in its entirety.”
“This will include reports, photographic evidence obtained, officer names, and my final determination that may raise the level of completion,” said Wilson.
She did not provide details of what the photos show officers doing.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI’s Denver division said in a joint statement this week that the agencies are aware of the photographs and are “gathering more information on that incident to determine if a federal civil rights investigation is warranted. ”
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has also appointed a special prosecutor to re-investigate McClain’s death and press charges if “the facts support the prosecution.”
McClain, a 23-year-old black man, was walking to his home in Aurora, a Denver suburb, after buying iced tea at a corner store on August 24, 2019, when he was arrested by police, Mari Newman, attorney McClain. family, he told ABC News last week.
He was wearing a ski mask on a warm night, which Newman attributed to being cold, when a person called 911 at 10:30 pm to report that he was acting “incomplete,” according to an audio recording of the 911 call posted by Aurora Police Department.
The caller told a 911 operator that a man, later identified as McClain, “has a mask” and “could be a good person or a bad person.” The caller went on to say that there were no weapons involved and when asked if he or anyone else was in danger, the caller said “No.”
Police body camera images showed McClain walking down the sidewalk when three officers approached him, and one told him several times to stop. But McClain, who was apparently listening to music at the time, continued walking. According to the body camera images, an officer put his hands on McClain and said, “Stop tensing up.” McClain replied, “Let go of me,” and told police that “he was going home.”
Officers took McClain to the ground and placed him in a carotid control hold, implying that an officer places his arm around a person’s neck, restricting blood flow to the brain from the carotid arteries, according to a letter. from Dave Young, the district attorney for Adams and Broomfield counties, to then-Aurora Police Chief Nicholas Metz. McClain, who was handcuffed, is seen in the images at one point vomiting after the fight with the officers while on the ground.
According to Young’s letter, paramedics who came to the scene said McClain was still combative and possibly suffered from a condition known as excited delirium. Subsequently, paramedics administered McClain what Newman said was an “overdose” of ketamine, which doctors and veterinarians use as an anesthetic.
After McClain was put in an ambulance, he suffered cardiac arrest, according to police. He died several days later.
An autopsy pathologist was unable to conclude that the actions of any law enforcement officer caused the death, Young said in a statement he released last week.
While Young said McClain’s death “was tragic and unnecessary,” he refused to press criminal charges against the officers and said, “To prove any form of homicide in the state of Colorado, the prosecution is required to prove that the accused caused the death of the victim. ”
“Based on the facts and evidence of this investigation, I cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that the officers involved in this incident were unwarranted in their actions based on what they knew at the time of the incident,” Young said.
The controversy over the photos emerged when the Aurora police came under scrutiny after being videotaped with batons and pepper spray on protesters gathered in a park for a rally on McClain’s death. Some protesters were playing violins in honor of McClain, who was playing the instrument when police used force to disperse the crowd.
During a virtual emergency city hall meeting Tuesday night, dozens of public comments from residents were read, including some who said they attended the protests on Saturday, most critical of the force the police used against protesters.
“The police intensified a peaceful vigil in another example of police brutality in this country. The Aurora police have upset me,” read the comment from one resident.
Another added: “What is the point of the First Amendment when all law enforcement agencies violate it?”
Wilson defended his officers and told the city council that among the peaceful protesters was a group of agitators trying to cause trouble.
She said several groups converged on the Aurora Municipal Center in the early afternoon and were peaceful until a couple of hours later, when a group of about 50 agitators began to push barricades. She said the department had received information that the violence-prone groups were intended to cause problems.
Wilson said some protesters threw objects at officers, who were wearing riot gear and carrying shields.
She said one man in the crowd was armed with a rifle and another with a pistol, while officers observed a woman handing out stones from a backpack. Undercover officers, Wilson said, reported hearing that some protesters wanted to storm the police department building.
Wilson claimed that at one point, officers were trying to separate the peaceful “violin vigil” protesters from a small group of violence-prone agitators, something she says police were unable to reach the crowd in their peaceful majority.
“I am deeply concerned that children are scared by that,” said Wilson. “People were confused by that, and I apologize profusely for that.”
ABC News’ Ella Torres contributed to this report.
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