An independent investigation into the deadly 2019 arrest of 23-year-old Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colo., has found that police used force on the young man with no justification and that paramedics who later came to the scene dosed him with ketamine based on an “inflated assessment of his size.”
McClain, who was a massage therapist and a self-taught violin player, was walking from a convenience store in August 2019 when police—responding to a 911 call that there was someone looking “sketchy”—pinned him to the ground and put him into a chokehold. According to a civil complaint filed by his family, the 140 pound McClain was captured on body camera footage at one point asking the cops, “Why are you attacking me?” Medics who later arrived on the scene injected him with 500 milligrams of ketamine, after which McClain went into cardiac arrest and was put on life support before dying in hospital.
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Though the independent report into the disturbing series of events concludes with only recommendations for policy review at the department level, its findings paint a damning picture on the behavior of the officers and the paramedics who took McClain into custody.
The report points out that neither the 911 caller who helped set the events in motion nor the officers who responded to it, “articulated a crime that they thought Mr. McClain had committed, was committing or was about to commit.”
