Ex-US Officer Sentenced for Elijah McClain’s Killing | BLM News
- Randy Roedema, a former police officer in Colorado, was sentenced to 14 months in jail for his role in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain. McClain was not suspected of any crime when police restrained him and paramedics injected him with a powerful sedative. Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault. However, another officer, Jason Rosenblatt, was found not guilty in the same trial.
- Elijah McClain, 23, was accosted by police on the night of August 24, 2019, after a bystander reported that he was acting suspiciously. The police put McClain in a chokehold and he subsequently died due to complications from a sedative administered by the paramedics. Initially, the cause of McClain’s death was reported as “undetermined”, but a revised autopsy report in 2021 concluded that he died from “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint”.
- Two paramedics involved in the case were convicted of criminally negligent homicide for injecting McClain with an overdose of the sedative ketamine. They are due to be sentenced in March. Initially, local prosecutors declined to file charges in the case and McClain’s killing received little attention. However, after the global protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd, Colorado Governor Jared Polis asked the state attorney general’s office to investigate McClain’s case, leading to a state grand jury indicting the officers and paramedics in 2021.
A former Colorado police officer sentenced to 14 months for the 2019 Elijah McClain killing
Randy Roedema, an ex-policeman from Colorado, has been handed a 14-month jail sentence for his part in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a Black man not implicated in any crime when police forcefully restrained him and paramedics sedated him with a potent drug.
McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, vehemently criticized Roedema – the sole legal officer found guilty in the incident – before sentencing on Friday.
“Randy Roedema took my son’s life…No amount of delayed apologies can cleanse the blood stains from Randy Roedema’s hands,” she expressed.
She labeled the sentence as “a slap on the wrist.”
Roedema was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in October. A fellow officer, Jason Rosenblatt, was acquitted in the joint trial.
McClain, 23, was intercepted by police on August 24, 2019, after a bystander reported a man wearing winter attire on a warm night, behaving suspiciously as he walked home from a store. Police instantly halted him, applied a carotid chokehold twice, leading him to vomit and plead about his inability to breathe.
A 2019 autopsy deemed McClain’s death cause as “undetermined”; however, a revised 2021 autopsy report attributed his death to complications following a ketamine injection after a forcible restraint.
In a separate trial, two paramedics were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide for overdosing McClain with ketamine. Their sentencing is scheduled for March.
McClain’s death initially gained little attention and charges were not filed by local prosecutors. It gained recognition following the global protests triggered by George Floyd’s death in May 2020. Colorado Governor, Jared Polis, asked for an investigation into McClain’s case which led to a state grand jury indicting the officers and paramedics in 2021.
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