The Sunday Story: The Life And Death Of Elijah McClain

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4.5 • 52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

In Colorado, the first of two trials is underway in the death of Elijah McClain.

On a late summer night in 2019, McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, was stopped by police in Aurora, Colorado as he was walking home. McClain was put in a chokehold and injected with a high dose of ketamine. He died several days later in the hospital.

Authorities declined to press charges against police and paramedics involved in the incident, insisting "they had acted consistently with their training." But nearly a year after McCain's death, the case was reopened. Now three police officers and two paramedics face criminal charges including assault, manslaughter and homicide.

Colorado Public Radio justice reporter Allison Sherry has followed McClain's case and the way his legacy has made an impact on policing in Colorado. Today on The Sunday Story, we bring you an excerpt of the audio documentary, "The Life and Death of Elijah Mclain."

This story includes graphic descriptions of violence and sounds from body cameras worn by police officers.

The full version of this audio documentary is in the podcast Colorado in Depth. To stay updated on the trials, go to cpr.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is the Sunday story.
0:03.5	On the night of August 24th, 2019, a 23-year-old black man, Elijah McLean, was walking home
0:10.8	from a convenience store in Aurora, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.
0:16.2	A passerby called 911 saying he looked sketchy.
0:24.6	Police officers quickly arrived on the scene.
0:28.2	What we know is that there was a struggle.
0:31.4	The police put Elijah into a carotid choke-hold.
0:35.3	When paramedics arrived, they injected Elijah with the high dose of ketamine to subdue
0:39.9	him.
0:40.9	Elijah lost his pulse.
0:43.3	On the way to the hospital, he had a cardiac arrest.
0:46.8	Elijah died several days later.
0:51.3	Some of his confrontation was documented in body cam footage, released months after Elijah's
0:56.8	death.
0:57.8	Aurora's police chief emphasized that what happened that night was a necessary use of
1:03.6	force.
1:05.6	But during the protests in 2020, after the death of George Floyd, Elijah's case received
1:11.1	renewed attention.
1:13.2	One big reason for this is that Elijah's mother, Shanine McLean, had been tirelessly demanding
1:19.3	justice for her son.
1:21.0	They didn't try to save his life, they did everything they could, to harm him, to hurt him,
1:26.2	to brutalize him, to terrorize him, and then to cover it up.
	...

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