What to know about Elijah McClain’s death and the cases against police and paramedics

By MATTHEW BROWN and COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press

BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — A jury has acquitted another Denver-area police officer who put Elijah McClain in a neck hold before the Black man was injected with the powerful sedative ketamine by paramedics and died. It was the second of three trials against first responders indicted by state prosecutors in the 23-year-old Black man’s death. The local district attorney had declined to bring charges but the case was reopened after the 2020 murder of George Floyd spurred social justice protests nationwide. The first trial ended in a split verdict with Aurora one officer found guilty and another acquitted. Two Aurora fire department paramedics are scheduled to be prosecuted in the final trial later this month.