A Colorado grand jury indicted three police officers and two paramedics involved in the August 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was stopped by police while walking home from a store, placed in a carotid hold and then injected with ketamine, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Wednesday.Aurora Police officers Randy Roedema and Nathan Woodyard, former officer Jason Rosenblatt and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were each indicted on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide as part of a 32-count indictment. In addition, Roedema and Rosenblatt were each indicted on one count of assault and one count of crime of violence, and Cooper and Cichuniec were each indicted on three counts of assault and six counts of crime of violence.
“We’re here today because Elijah McClain is not here and he should be,” Weiser said. “When he died he was only 23 years old. He had his whole life ahead of him and his family and his friends must now go on and must live without him.”
The grand jury returned the results of the investigation on Thursday, nearly two years since McClain’s death.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser talks about a grand jury investigation into the death of Elijah McClain during a news conference on Wednesday in Denver.
The indictment is in sharp contrast to prosecutors’ initial conclusions in the case. In 2019, Adams County District Attorney Dave Young declined to bring criminal charges because he said prosecutors lacked evidence to prove the officers caused McClain’s death or that their force was unjustified.
