Mr. McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, died last summer after the police in Aurora, Colo., restrained him with a chokehold that has since been banned.
Family members of Elijah McClain, the 23-year-old Black man who died last summer after the police in Aurora, Colo., restrained him with a chokehold and paramedics injected him with ketamine, filed a lawsuit against the city on Tuesday. “We have filed this civil rights lawsuit to demand justice for Elijah McClain, to hold accountable the Aurora officials, police officers and paramedics responsible for his murder, and to force the city of Aurora to change its longstanding pattern of brutal and racist policing,” Mari Newman, a lawyer for the family, said in a statement. The civil complaint, filed in the U. S. District Court by Mr. McClain’s parents, Sheneen McClain and Lawayne Mosley, seeks damages for the family and names the city,12 police officers, two Fire Department paramedics and their medical director as plaintiffs. “In a span of 18 minutes, defendants subjected Elijah to a procession of needless and brutal force techniques and unnecessary, recklessly administered medication, the combined effects of which he could not survive,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit also said the city “permits and encourages a culture of racial violence in its Police Department” and accused the police of using unnecessary force in response to demonstrators who gathered to protest Mr. McClain’s death. Representatives of the Police and the Fire Departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Aurora said “the city is currently reviewing the lawsuit and is unable to comment at this time.” Mr. McClain, a massage therapist, was walking home from a convenience store with some iced tea on Aug.
