DENVER (AP) — A judge sentenced an ex-Colorado police officer to 14 months in jail for his role in the death of Elijah McClain after hearing the young Black man’s mother on Friday call the officer a “bully with a badge” who will always have blood on his hands.
A judge sentenced an ex-Colorado police officer to 14 months in jail for his role in the death of Elijah McClain after hearing the young Black man’s mother on Friday call the officer a “bully with a badge” who will always have blood on his hands.
The officer, Randy Roedema, was the most senior law enforcement member charged in McClain’s death and was the only one found guilty. He was the most senior officer who initially responded to the scene. A jury convicted him in October of criminally negligent homicide, which is a felony, and third-degree assault, which is a misdemeanor.
The 23-year-old’s killing received little attention at the time of his death, but gained renewed interest the following year as mass protests swept the nation over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. McClain’s death became a rallying cry for critics of racial injustice in policing.
In a separate trial, two paramedics were recently convicted for injecting McClain with an overdose of the sedative ketamine after police put him in a neck hold. Sentencing will come later this year for the paramedics, who had been trained to use ketamine to treat “ excited delirium ” — a disputed condition some say is unscientific, rooted in racism, and used to justify excessive force.
Before the judge handed down the sentence, McClain’s mother Sheneen McClain raged against Roedema after he expressed remorse but stopped short of apologizing.
“Randy Roedema stole my son’s life,” she said, “All the belated apologies in the world can’t remove my son’s blood from Randy Roedema’s hands.”
Protecting the community was “the furthest thing from his mind” the night the was stopped walking home from the store, she said.
Roedema also spoke at the hearing, as well as his sister and former military colleagues — he was a U.S. Marine who was wounded in Iraq.
