Colorado man Elijah McClain died from OD of sedative given by paramedics, autopsy shows

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – Elijah McClain, an unarmed Black man killed in 2019 after an encounter with police in Aurora, Colorado, died of an overdose of the highly effective sedative ketamine that was injected by paramedics, a brand new post-mortem report launched on Friday concluded.

Dr. Stephen Cina, a forensic pathologist who had initially concluded that McClain’s explanation for demise was “undetermined,” wrote in his new report on Friday that he had had “inadequate data” throughout his 2019 post-mortem.

Three law enforcement officials and two paramedics have been criminally charged in McClain’s demise in 2021, following protests.

“I consider that Mr. McClain would almost certainly be alive however for the administration of ketamine,” Cina wrote in Friday’s report.

McClain, 23, was strolling house from a comfort retailer within the Denver suburb of Aurora on August 24, 2019, when he was confronted by police responding to a report that he was appearing suspiciously, though he was not suspected of against the law.

The officers subdued McClain with a carotid neck maintain and handcuffed him, in accordance with an indictment. Paramedics then arrived and injected him with a dose of ketamine too excessive for somebody of his weight, in accordance with the post-mortem. McClain went into cardiac arrest and died days later at a hospital.

Months after his demise, a neighborhood prosecutor declined to prosecute the primary responders, citing the preliminary post-mortem.

The McClain case drew nationwide consideration following the 2020 demise of George Floyd underneath the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, which sparked international protests over the therapy of Black Individuals by legislation enforcement.

Following the outcry, Colorado Governor Jared Polis appointed the state’s legal professional common to assessment McClain’s demise. In September 2021, a grand jury indicted the three Aurora law enforcement officials and two paramedics.

All 5 are charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder and are set to enter pleas in November.

Final November, town of Aurora agreed to pay McClain’s mother and father $15 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit. Additionally final 12 months, Colorado’s legal professional common decided that Aurora’s police routinely violated the legislation by partaking in racially biased policing and extreme use of pressure.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman, Modifying by Donna Bryson and Invoice Berkrot)