A Portrait of Elijah McClain

Elijah Jovan McClain, born on February 25, 1996, was a 23-year-old African-American massage therapist, and promising violinist and guitarist, from... more

by Walter Neal

Title

A Portrait of Elijah McClain

Artist

Walter Neal

Medium

Digital Art - Painting

Description

Elijah Jovan McClain, born on February 25, 1996, was a 23-year-old African-American massage therapist, and promising violinist and guitarist, from Aurora, Colorado, who was murdered on August 30, 2019 by three cops and two paramedics, on August 30, 2019, while walking home, minding his business. Elijah was 5' 6", and weighed 140 lbs!!!

On that night, three Aurora Police officers confronted McClain after responding to a call by an Aurora citizen about an unarmed person wearing a ski mask that looked "sketchy". The three police officers who were involved in the incident, Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema, said that their body cameras were knocked off during a struggle with McClain.

McClain was forcibly brought to the ground, with his hands cuffed behind his back; after which paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, administered ketamine (enough for a 200 lb man) to McClain to sedate him. Instead, McClain went into cardiac arrest. Three days after arriving at the hospital, he was declared brain dead, and was removed from life support on August 30. McClain's autopsy was 'inconclusive'.

On June 24, 2020, after a social media outcry and Aurora lawmakers' requests for a new, third-party investigation into McClain's death, Colorado Governor, Jared Polis, announced his administration would reexamine the case. Five days later, photos that were taken in October 2019, which showed officers posing inappropriately and reenacting the carotid restraint used on McClain, taken at the site he was detained, were discovered. One officer resigned and three were fired.

On February 2021, an investigative report ordered by the City Council was released. The investigation found that the police officers involved in McClain's death did not have the legal basis to stop, restrain, or frisk him. The report questioned the police officers' statements, criticized the medical responders' decision to inject McClain with a sedative, and admonished the police department for failing to do a serious questioning of the officers following McClain's death.

On September 1, 2021, the three police officers (Woodyard, Rosenblatt and Roedema) and two paramedics (Cooper and Cichuniec) were indicted by a Colorado grand jury for the death of Elijah McClain.

Uploaded

September 1st, 2021

Statistics

Viewed 48 Times  -  Last Visitor from Staten Island, NY on 01/29/2023 at 8:17 AM

Colors

Embed

Share

Tags