Elijah McClain: officers to enter pleas to charges in death of Black man put in chokehold

A group of police officers and paramedics are scheduled on Friday to enter pleas in Colorado court to charges in the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was put in a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative two years ago in suburban Denver.

They were indicted by a state grand jury on manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges in 2021.

McClain, a massage therapist, had not been accused of committing any crime and was not carrying any kind of weapon.

According to the indictment, he was walking home from a grocery store in 2019 after buying iced tea wearing a ski mask, months before the coronavirus pandemic began and made face coverings common.

Polis ordered the state investigation after a former district attorney said he could not file charges because an autopsy could not determine how McClain died.

His death helped prompt a sweeping police accountability law in Colorado, a ban on chokeholds and restrictions on the use of the sedative ketamine.