In accordance with the Governor’s Order, the Attorney General’s Office will continue to conduct an independent investigation into the events of 24 August 2019 relating to Elijah McClain and his subsequent death, according to the statement.
The grand jury is an investigative tool that has the power to compel witnesses to testify and to demand documents and other relevant information, depending on the testimony.
Our research will be thorough, based on the facts and the law, and will deserve the trust of the public. In order to guarantee the impartiality and integrity of the process, the statement shall state that
McClain’s death attracted more attention last summer after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. As protests across the country increase, protests in a suburb of Denver have highlighted what McClain and his family have demanded in terms of justice over the past month.
On the night of the 24th. In August 2019, McClain was on his way home from a grocery store selling iced tea when he met three policemen from Aurora, Colorado.
Police arrested him after a 911 call reported a suspicious man wearing a ski mask on Billings Street in Aurora, according to the police. The report indicates that McClain resisted contact with the officers before the fight began.
I’m an introvert, heard McClain on the police tapes after cops confronted him. Please respect the boundaries I’m talking about.
Relax, the officer said at some point, or I’m gonna have to change the situation.
Fault! The file name is not specified.
Before the officer put him down, McClain heard him say he wanted to turn his music off so he could hear it.
During the fight, you could hear an officer just reaching for his rifle. An officer told McClain he’d walk my dog and bite you if McClain kept having fun.
D.A. Adams’ letter indicates that officer McClain stabbed the carotid artery, restricting blood flow to the brain. McClain briefly lost consciousness, according to the letter, but continued to struggle after the officers cleared the hold.
The letter from the D.A.’s office says the paramedics came to prescribe ketamine, a powerful anesthetic. McClain was taken to the hospital, but had a heart attack on the way in. Three days later, on the 27th. In August he was declared brain dead, according to the letter.
The autopsy carried out by the coroner could not determine the cause of death, but revealed intense physical exertion and narrowing of the left coronary artery.
The report notes that McClain’s history of asthma and carotid artery disease, although the autopsy was unable to determine whether this contributed to his death. According to the report, the concentration of ketamine in his system was within the therapeutic range.
In the end, McClain’s death may have been an accident, the result of natural causes or murder, according to the autopsy.
The McClain family lawyer, Marie Newman, called the autopsy very strange. She said she didn’t know the most obvious factor – a perfectly healthy young man comes home from the pharmacy with a bottle of iced tea in a bag and ends up dead.
The three employees concerned were initially put on leave, but were later reinstated when the Public Prosecutor’s Office refrained from filing a complaint.
Fault! The file name is not specified.
In a letter dated November 2019 to the then Aurora Chief of Police, Dave Young wrote that his office found insufficient evidence that the officers had broken Colorado law or that their use of force was unreasonable. Police regulators declared in February that the use of violence, including chinstrap reduction, was in line with policy and vocational training.
Young remained faithful to his decision not to indict the officers, but stated that McClain’s death was tragic and unnecessary, and had previously told CNN that he did not approve of the officers’ actions.
In fact, I disagree with what they were doing on the night of August 24, 2019, he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo in June. But he referred to the autopsy and said: I can’t take the case to a jury if I don’t know the cause of death in a murder case.
But amid recent speculation about racial and police violence, some people felt McClain’s death deserved a second look, and by June more than two million people had signed an online petition calling for a new investigation.
Fault! The file name is not specified.
At the end of June, Governor Jared Polis of Colorado contacted Colorado’s Attorney General, Phil Weiser, to conduct an independent investigation into McClain’s death and, if necessary, file charges against him.
Elijah McClain is expected to live today, and we owe it to ourselves to take that step and make the pursuit of justice on his behalf a national issue, Polis said in a statement at the time.
Weiser confirmed in August that he is conducting a separate investigation into the police department and the unconstitutionality of its structure and practices. In addition, the city of Aurora had its own police investigation carried out by hiring an external consultant for an extensive investigation.
Leslie Perrault, Madeline Holcomb, Brad Parks, Amir Vera, Caroline Kelly and Ray Sanchez of CNN contributed to this report.
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