After suspended Aurora Police Officer Nathan Woodyard was found not guilty of charges for his role in Elijah McClain’s death, his mother Sheneen McClain, right, and supporter MiDian Holmes joined hands and raised their fists in protest as they left a courtroom at the Adams County Justice Center, November 6, 2023.
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After suspended Aurora Police Officer Nathan Woodyard was found not guilty of charges for his role in Elijah McClain’s death, his mother Sheneen McClain, right, and supporter MiDian Holmes joined hands and raised their fists in protest as they left a courtroom at the Adams County Justice Center, November 6, 2023.
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The death of Elijah McClain at the hands of police and paramedics in suburban Denver made news during the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in 2020.
Today, the final sentence for the three police officers and two paramedics involved in the death of the young black man was handed down.
On Friday, Aurora Fire Department medic Jeremy Cooper, who administered the lethal dose of ketamine to McClain, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to be placed on work release.
In a previous trial, Cooper’s boss, Peter Chinicac, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Two of the officers were acquitted, but Officer Randy Roedema was sentenced to 14 months in prison and four years of probation.
Paramedic Jeremy Cooper leaves court at the Adams County Justice Center on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.
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Paramedic Jeremy Cooper leaves court at the Adams County Justice Center on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.
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“Elijah McClain’s life mattered and matters,” Judge Mark Warner, who heard all the cases, said during Cooper’s sentencing.
“It’s almost unthinkable: a young man died for no reason,” Warner said. “The court realized that this was not necessary. It could have happened very differently.”
McClain’s Fatal Encounter With Police Happened on the corner of Evergreen Avenue and Billings Street. The intersection is against a highway and there is a huge concrete wall lining one side of the street, with low-slung apartment buildings on the other side. There is an aging artificial flower memorial against the road barrier in McClain’s memory.
Nearly five years ago, the 23-year-old massage therapist was returning home from a nearby convenience store after purchasing iced tea.
He didn’t know that someone had reported a suspicious person.
Although she was never suspected of committing any crime, police took McClain, who weighed 145 pounds, to the ground just minutes after first contacting him. He was unarmed, but he was given two carotid chokeholds and thrown into the grass several times. Then paramedics gave him a dose of a powerful sedative and loaded him into an ambulance, handcuffed, where he lost his pulse and never recovered.
Sheneen McClain, Elijah’s mother, heard these events recounted repeatedly over more than three months during the first responders’ trials. A single woman who raised six children almost alone during years of poverty and homelessness, she had to watch the video of her son’s death repeatedly in court.
“Even though I know he is safe and protected and in all his power and spiritual form, the fact that he is not here is what hurts, and the reason he doesn’t isn’t there, it hurts,” McClain said. “I cannot ignore these videos. I cannot ignore the wickedness of those who murdered my son. I know their hearts.”
Tears flowed from Sheneen McClain’s face outside the Adams County Justice Center Friday evening, Dec. 22, after a jury found two paramedics guilty of lesser charges in the death of her son, Elijah McClain.
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Tears flowed from Sheneen McClain’s face outside the Adams County Justice Center Friday evening, Dec. 22, after a jury found two paramedics guilty of lesser charges in the death of her son, Elijah McClain.
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Elijah McClain’s death at the hands of police occurred nine months before that of George Floyd. At first, the local prosecutor did not take charge of the case and the police and paramedics returned to work.
But as protests against police brutality unfolded across the country in 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis reopened the case, appointing Attorney General Phil Weiser as special prosecutor. Weiser then filed felony charges.
Four years later, after the conviction of emergency worker Jeremey Cooper, Weiser said there was some justice for Elijah McClain. But –
“He was walking down the street, listening to music, carrying his iced tea and he died. There is nothing that could happen that would bring the kind of healing that Sheneen McClain and the community want.”
In 2020, Colorado lawmakers passed large-scale police reforms.
They banned carotid chokeholds, made it easier to prosecute police officers and tightened rules on the use of force. This year, they banned the use of the term “excited delirium” in law enforcement training and as a cause of death. First responders gave McClain a sedative because they diagnosed him with excited delirium. This diagnosis has been widely discredited among medical professionals.
In search of pearls
But despite these reforms, community activists like Hashim Coates say there is still more to be done.
“You know, there’s no guarantee that even with irritants, every clam will produce a pearl,” Coates said.
Coates supported Sheneen McClain during the trials. He carries the cell phone number of the Aurora police chief and advocates for changes in policing, particularly in the black community.
He says reforms don’t mean activists can give up
“We need to be tougher, firmer in our response to ODA,” Coates said. “Not for Elijah’s family but for the next unknown family that something will happen to because we weren’t tougher.”
Sheneen McClain says she too will continue to push for police reforms. But she doubts that police culture can completely change.
“I don’t think policing is any better because there are still people or individuals who feel they haven’t done anything wrong,” she said. “If they don’t admit they didn’t do anything wrong, how can things get better?”
The trials also led to changes among paramedics. Twenty-five Aurora firefighters have resigned from the ambulance portion of their job over fears of criminal prosecution. This represents approximately 10% of the workforce.
Everyone involved in the trials would say there is still immeasurable heartache and an unsatisfying amount of work to be done. Activists say it’s still up to the community, and likely Sheneen McClain, to keep the momentum for reform going.
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