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Independent panel points to EMS, police in death of Elijah McClain

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Elijah McClain died in August 2019. (301923)
Elijah McClain died in August 2019. Credit: Source: WP:NFCC#4

Colorado police and paramedics who stopped Elijah McClain made a series of crucial errors that ended in the young man’s 2019 death, findings of an independent probe revealed on Monday, reports NBC News.

Aurora police had no justification to stop or use force to detain McClain, and responding paramedics sedated him with ketamine “without conducting anything more than a brief visual observation” of the 23-year-old Black man, according ti a panel of medical and legal experts appointed by the City Council, which commissioned the report. McClain was stopped on Aug. 24, 2019 in Aurora by officers answering a call reporting a suspicious person.

The initial stop of McClain was questionable, as “none of the officers articulated a crime that they thought Mr. McClain had committed, was committing or was about to commit,” the report found.

“This decision had ramifications for the rest of the encounter,” according to findings.

A chokehold was used during the confrontation and he was injected with ketamine, with authorities believing he was in a state of excited delirium and posing a threat to officers, authorities have said.

“Based on the record available to the panel, we were not able to identify sufficient evidence that Mr. McClain was armed and dangerous in order to justify a pat-down search” the report said. “The panel also notes that one officer’s explanation that that Aurora officers are trained to ‘take action before it escalates’ does not meet the constitutional requirement of reasonable suspicion to conduct (a stop or frisk).”

The 5-foot-7, 140-pound McClain was given ketamine that would have been proper for a man weighing 190 pounds, according to the panel’s findings.

“Aurora Fire appears to have accepted the officers’ impression that Mr. McClain had excited delirium without corroborating that impression through meaningful observations or diagnostic examination of Mr. McClain,” the report said.

“In addition, EMS administered a ketamine dosage based on a grossly inaccurate and inflated estimate of Mr. McClain’s size. Higher doses can carry a higher risk of sedation complications, for which this team was clearly not prepared.”

McClain lost consciousness and was taken off life support on Aug. 30, 2019.

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