As Colorado authorities investigate the death of Elijah McClain, an equally troubling question must be asked: how many other cases like his are there across the country?
Last summer, a 23-year-old Black man named Elijah McClain went to pick up iced tea for his brother in Aurora, Colorado, but he never made it home. On that walk, he was arrested and died, and the troubling circumstances of his death at the hands of the police will now be further be investigated following a directive by Colorado’s governor What also needs more investigation, however, is a question equally troubling:
how many other cases like Elijah McClain’s are there across the country?
Many of the facts of McClain’s death are clear. Based on statements from McClain’s family, on August 24, 2019, the unarmed young man walked to a local convenience store. A 911 call reported a suspicious man in a ski mask waving his hands, but also acknowledged the man was unarmed and had not committed a crime. Following the call, McClain was stopped and questioned by police. Body-cam footage captures audio of McClain’s interactions with the officers, including pleas by McClain that he couldn’t breathe during the physical altercation of his arrest.
On one of the officers’ body cameras, McClain is heard saying, «I’m an introvert, please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.»
Nonetheless, one of the police officers reportedly applied a carotid hold on McClain – a police maneuver that temporarily cuts off blood to the subject’s brain. Following his arrest, the police officers called first responders, who treated McClain with life saving measures. McClain reportedly went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. He was taken off life support and died on August 30.
At the time, the cause of McClain’s death was described by the coroner as undetermined, but numerous questions remained about exactly how he died. The autopsy raised numerous questions regarding wither McClain died as a result of the carotid hold, the injection of sedatives by the first responders, or the bruises to McClain’s body.
