A Colorado jury Thursday convicted one of two officers charged in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a Black pedestrian who was put in a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative, and it acquitted the other officer.
The jury convicted Aurora Police Officer Randy Roedema of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault.
Former Aurora officer Jason Rosenblatt was acquitted. Both had been charged with reckless manslaughter, as well as the lesser charges of criminally negligent homicide and assault.
Sentencing was set for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 5.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, whose office was appointed as the special prosecutors in the case, said more work must be done to make policing safer.
“Today’s verdict is about accountability; everyone is accountable and equal under the law,” he said in a statement. “And hopefully today’s verdict is another step in the healing process for the Aurora community and the state.”
Roedema had been suspended without pay, while Rosenblatt was fired in 2020 after he responded “ha ha” to a picture texted to him by other officers, one of whom appeared to be administering a chokehold near a memorial for McClain.
McClain, 23, had just bought iced tea from a corner store in Aurora on the night of Aug. 24, 2019, when police stopped him. Officers were responding to a report of a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms.
McClain regularly wore a mask because of a blood disorder that made him feel cold, his family has said.
When officers told McClain to stop, he said he was an introvert and asked them to “please respect the boundaries that I am speaking,” bodycam video of the confrontation showed.
Officers questioned McClain before they tackled him, believing he was reaching for one of their guns, police said. There has been no evidence showing McClain, who was not armed, tried take one of the guns.
Officer Nathan Woodyard, set to go on trial this week, then put…
Read the full article here
