LOS ANGELES • Colorado’s Governor has ordered a special investigation into the death of a young black man put in a police chokehold, as a celebrity-backed online petition calling for justice in the case garnered over three million signatures.
The death occurred months before the killing of Mr George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, but nationwide anger sparked by Mr Floyd’s case has refocused attention on police brutality against minorities, especially black Americans.
Mr Elijah McClain, 23, died last August in Aurora, three days after he was put in a chokehold by police, injected with ketamine to sedate him and suffered cardiac arrest.
Police had responded to a call about a “suspicious” black male “acting weird” in the street and wearing a ski mask, the district attorney’s report said. One officer said Mr McClain, who was unarmed, had reached for another officer’s gun.
Governor Jared Polis appointed the attorney-general to probe the case, vowing on Twitter that “if the facts support prosecution”, the state will “criminally prosecute any individuals whose actions caused the death of Elijah McClain”.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr Polis said he had been “moved” after speaking with the victim’s mother Sheneen.
Mr McClain’s family told media that he had been out buying iced tea, and often wore the mask to stay warm because he suffered from anaemia.
“They murdered him. They are bullies with badges,” Mrs Sheneen McClain told CBS.
No charges have been filed against the officers, who remain on duty.
Mr Dave Young, the prosecutor who found no criminal wrongdoing, said in a statement on Thursday that he “may share the vast public opinion that Elijah McClain’s death could have been avoided”, but that it could not be proved the officers’ actions had caused his death.
TV host Ellen DeGeneres is among the celebrities who have backed the probe, tweeting on Wednesday: “Read what happened to #ElijahMcClain, and ask yourself what you would do if it happened to someone you knew. #JusticeForElijahMcClain.”
Interest in Mr McClain’s case, and others involving police killings of minorities, has surged following massive nationwide protests over the death of Mr Floyd, an unarmed African American who suffocated with an officer’s knee on his neck on May 25.
In nearby Arizona, a police chief this week offered to resign over the case of a young Latino man who died in custody.
A police body camera video released on Wednesday showed Mr Carlos Ingram Lopez, 27, saying “I can’t breathe” and pleading for water as he was arrested at his grandmother’s house in Tucson in April.
Police responding to a 911 call regarding a “public nuisance” placed Mr Lopez face-down in handcuffs, and minutes later he passed out and died from a heart attack. The three officers resigned last week.
Police chief Chris Magnus said it was “irresponsible and unfair” to conclude Mr Lopez was “murdered by the police”, and that an autopsy, which did not determine a cause of death, had found that Mr Lopez had cocaine in his system and an enlarged heart.
But Mr Magnus admitted that the police officers had breached department policy, and offered his own resignation.
While the city manager will ultimately decide, Mayor Regina Romero said in a statement that she does “not believe the Chief should resign”.
The police shooting death of 18-year-old Latino Andres Guardado this month has also triggered protests in California, among others.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
