DENVER (Reuters) - Three Colorado police officers and two paramedics pleaded not guilty on Friday to homicide charges in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a Black man subdued by police, placed in a choke hold and injected with a sedative, though he was neither armed nor suspected of a crime.
Attorneys for all five defendants entered pleas of not guilty to manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges. The arraignment was in Adams County, the jurisdiction where the killing took place.
McClain, 23, was walking home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Aug. 24, 2019, when he was confronted by police responding to a report that he was acting suspiciously, although he was not suspected of having committed a crime.
Police restrained the slight-of-built McClain in a carotid neck hold, commonly known as a choke hold. He was later injected with the powerful sedative ketamine, then lapsed into cardiac arrest and died days later at a hospital.
In a video recording of the encounter from a police-worn body camera, a sobbing McClain could be heard pleading with the officers: "I can't breathe, please stop. I was just going home."
A revised autopsy report issued in September 2022 concluded a ketamine overdose was the cause of McClain's death.
I hope that the jury sees this:
US officers fired for pictures mocking man's death
