Elijah McClain.Photo: Family Photo
“There is no amount of money in the world that will make up for losing my son, but hopefully this sends a message to police everywhere that there are consequences for their actions,” McClain’s biological father, LaWayne Mosley, said in a statement shared with PEOPLE. “I hope Elijah’s legacy is that police will think twice before killing another innocent person.”
The City of Aurora also confirmed a settlement, but not the amount, and said it was reached “in principle” last summer but still required family members to agree to an allocation before the city would confirm the terms, reportsCBS Denver.
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McClain, 23, was returning from a store where he’d purchased four cans of iced tea when he encountered police officers at 10:43 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2019.
While pinned, McClain told officers he was having difficulty breathing and started vomiting, according to the report. Paramedics were summoned and, after apparently accepting “the officers' impression that Mr. McClain had excited delirium without corroborating that impression through meaningful observation or diagnostic examination,” according to the review, they administered the sedative ketamine.
But the report says a fire department lieutenant misjudged McClain’s 140-pound weight, injecting enough of the sedative for a 190-pound person.
McClain suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma on the way to the hospital. He was removed from life support and died on Aug. 30, 2019.
But following an outcry on social media, both the City of Aurora and the state Attorney General’s Office announced investigations. The incident also garnered a national audience as it coincided with the deaths ofGeorge Floydin Minneapolis,Breonna Taylorin Louisville andRayshard Brooksin Atlanta that were then fueling mass protests across the country over excessive use of police force against Black people.
“It is hard to imagine any other persons involved in a fatal incident being interviewed as these officers were,” the report states.
In announcing the settlement, Newman, the attorney for McClain’s father, said in a statement: “In the two years since we began work on this lawsuit, there has been a revolution in Colorado’s — and the country’s — acknowledgement of the scourge of racist police brutality.”
“Thousands have chanted Elijah’s name in the streets of Colorado and the nation,” she continued. “Those voices propelled Colorado to pass a law imposing unprecedented accountability for law enforcement. That accountability led to the criminal indictment of the officers and medics who murdered Elijah, and a consent decree to reform a broken police department.”
“Now, Aurora’s acknowledgment of the wrong it committed, through this settlement, will hopefully bring some measure of peace and healing to Elijah’s family and the millions of people across the nation who have demanded justice for Elijah McClain,” Newman said.
source: people.com
