What Has Changed In The 2 Years Since Elijah McClain's Encounter With Aurora Police
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- It's been two years since the encounter between Aurora police and Elijah McClain set a series of events in motion that would put the 23-year-old in the hospital, on life support, before his passing. McClain was stopped Aug. 24, 2019 after a 911 call regarding a suspicious person.
What investigations have found is that Aurora police had no legal basis to stop, frisk or use a now banned chokehold on McClain. Police body cameras recorded the incident.
"Get us some more units- we are fighting him," could be heard shouted by one officer on the recording.
McClain was confronted while walking home just north of Colfax on Billings after someone called 911 to report a man who appeared sketchy. He had been to the store to buy tea.
McClain was also injected with the sedative Ketamine. Investigations criticized the amount given and have led to a new state law with stricter requirements on such use.
McClain's mother, who raised him, wants more done.
In February, Shaneen McLain told CBS4, "I want the police officers to be tried, I want the firefighters to be tried. Everybody that stood there and did nothing to deescalate needs to be charged."
The officers involved were not charged by the Adams County District Attorney at the time, but a state grand jury has been taking another look.
Legal Analyst Raj Chohan, a former CBS4 reporter said, "I think it's very unusual for the state, for the state attorney general to second guess what a local elected DA has decided, but this is an extraordinary case, but it's garnered a lot of local attention, a lot of national attention."
After the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, the case of Elijah McClain emerged more vividly on the social justice radar and became the subject of protests in Aurora and elsewhere.
Investigations have also been examing the patterns and practices of the Aurora Police Department.
The most recent findings in a city-authorized probe by the company 21 CP revealed that 27 officers were responsible for nearly a quarter of all use of force and that Black men were the object of 29% of force incidents although they make up 9% of the population.
Two years after McClain was stopped by officers, the Aurora Police Department's problems have not been solved. The parents of McClain have an active lawsuit in Denver U.S. District Court against the City of Aurora and individuals connected to the incident.
