News / Articles

Three Aurora police officers and two paramedics face criminal indictment in the death of Elijah McClain after a state grand jury reached a different conclusion than earlier investigations, answering cries for justice from thousands who demanded arrests during police protests, city council meetings and community forums.

The grand jury indicted Aurora police officers Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema, former officer Jason Rosenblatt and paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec on 32 combined counts last week, according to court records unsealed Wednesday.

“We’re here today because Elijah McClain is not here, and he should be,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said at a news conference announcing the charges. “He was a son, a nephew, a brother and a friend.”

The indictment comes just over two years after McClain, 23, died after being violently detained by the officers and injected with the sedative ketamine by paramedics.

Weiser’s announcement was welcomed by McClain’s family and their supporters, who have pushed for criminal charges and police reform in the wake of his death. The grand jury’s decision was condemned by an Aurora police union.

Arrest warrants for all five men were issued Wednesday. All five men turned themselves in to the Glendale Police Department, where they were booked and released on $10,000 bond.

The four officers and paramedics who still work for the city of Aurora — Woodyard, Roedema, Cooper and Cichuniec — were suspended without pay, pending the outcome of the criminal charges, Aurora City Manager Jim Twombly said in a statement.

All five face charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Officers Roedema, 39, and Rosenblatt, 32, also each face a count of second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury and a count of crime of violence related to the second-degree assault charge.

Paramedics Cooper, 46, and Cichuniec, 48, also each face a charge of second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury, a count of second-degree assault for recklessly causing bodily injury by means of a deadly weapon (ketamine) and one count of second-degree assault for a purpose other than lawful medical or therapeutic treatment for administering ketamine to McClain.

The two paramedics additionally face two counts of crime of violence for each of the assault charges.

Efforts to reach the five and their attorneys were unsuccessful.

The charges brought by the grand jury mark the first time the officers and paramedics involved in McClain’s 2019 death have faced any punishment for their actions that night.

McClain’s mother Sheneen has been demanding prosecutors file criminal charges against those involved since his death. Her demands were echoed by thousands across the country in the summer of 2020 after people protesting the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer took up McClain’s cause and launched him into the national conversation.

On Wednesday morning, Sheneen McClain said she was overwhelmed by the indictments.

“It’s been a two-year battle just to get to this point,” she said. “It’s huge to know they’re indicted. But I know it’s not over. We still have to go to trial.”

The public pressure prompted Gov. Jared Polis in June 2020 to designate Weiser as a special prosecutor to investigate the death, which led Weiser in January to call for a state grand jury to reexamine the circumstances surrounding McClain’s death and weigh any potential criminal charges.

At Wednesday’s news conference, Weiser said he had a choice between reviewing the records of former Adams County District Attorney Dave Young, who had declined to prosecute the officers and paramedics involved, or to call a grand jury that would be authorized to gather new facts about what happened. He chose to call the grand jury. That body finished its work on Thursday, Weiser said.

“A normal healthy 23-year-old man”

McClain was walking to a convenience store to purchase tea the night of Aug. 24, 2019, when someone called 911 to report a suspicious person. The three Aurora police officers contacted McClain as he returned home.

When McClain refused to stop walking, the officers tackled him to the ground, handcuffed him and used a carotid chokehold to block the flow of blood to his brain. Officers ignored McClain’s pleas to leave him alone. Paramedics injected him with 500 mg of ketamine, a powerful sedative, before taking him to the hospital.

McClain suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital, where he was later declared brain dead. He died Aug. 30, 2019, after being removed from life support.

The 33-page indictment describes the events of the night and notes the officers never stopped to check McClain’s vital signs after choking him to the point of unconsciousness and hearing his statements that he couldn’t breathe. The paramedics, too, failed to physically check on McClain before diagnosing him with excited delirium and injecting him with an overdose of ketamine, the indictment states.

“Mr. McClain was a normal healthy 23-year-old man prior to encountering law enforcement and medical response personnel,” the indictment states. “A forensic pathologist opined that the cause of death for Mr. McClain was complications following acute ketamine administration during violent subdual and restraint by law enforcement and emergency response personnel, and the manner of death was homicide.”

That contradicts the findings of the original autopsy conducted by an Adams County forensic pathologist, who in November 2019 concluded that the cause and manner of McClain’s death were undetermined. Based in part on that finding, Young cleared the police officers of any criminal wrongdoing and Nick Metz, Aurora’s police chief at the time, determined the officers had not violated any of the department’s policies.

Roedema and Woodyard had remained employed by the Aurora Police Department, but Rosenblatt was fired in July 2020 after it was discovered he had responded “ha ha” in a text to a photo of colleagues smiling and reenacting a chokehold at the spot where McClain was detained.

On Wednesday, Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson said, “I know this has been a long-awaited decision for Ms. McClain and her family. This tragedy will forever be imprinted on our community. We continue to offer our condolences for the loss of Elijah, and we will continue to cooperate with the judicial process.”

Meanwhile, Twombly, the city manager, vowed to push forward with plans to reform the department while also pledging to support the city’s officers as they meet the community’s expectations.

In August 2019, Roedema had been with the Aurora Police Department for five years, Woodyard had been with the department for nearly three years and Rosenblatt had been with the department for two years.

The Aurora Police Protective Association — one of the unions representing Aurora officers — on Wednesday said in a statement that the three officers did nothing wrong and that there is no evidence the officers caused McClain’s death.

“Sadly, Mr. McClain died due to a combination of exertion due to his decision to violently resist arrest and a pre-existing heart condition,” the union said in its statement. “…The hysterical overreaction to this case has severely damaged the police department. Inevitably, the public are the ones who’ve paid the price.”

But Qusair Mohamedbhai, the lawyer who represents Sheneen McClain, said the union’s response is an example of why people in Aurora don’t trust the police and why reform is necessary.

“The reason the public is losing so much faith and confidence in policing is the heartless positions these police unions take,” he said.

Multiple investigations were launched last summer after McClain became a household name during months of nationwide protests against police violence.

Weiser also launched a probe into the Aurora Police Department’s practices and policies. That investigation is ongoing. And the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it, too, would probe the death.

A consulting firm hired by city leaders to examine McClain’s death found Aurora police made substantial errors at nearly every stage of their interaction with McClain and while the department investigated its own officers after his death.

McClain’s parents also filed a federal lawsuit against Aurora and the police officers and paramedics involved in their son’s death. Mohamedbhai said all sides continue to work on a resolution, and court filings indicate a settlement is in the works.

Even with multiple investigations unresolved, McClain’s death has had lasting impact.

In 2020, the Colorado legislature passed a massive police reform bill that banned chokeholds, required body cameras, changed how departments address misconduct and how victims of police violence can redress their wrongs. And a state law restricting ketamine use by paramedics was passed earlier this year.

“Elijah McClain’s death was a tragedy”

All along, Sheneen McClain has said she wants nothing more than for the people who are responsible for her son’s death to be punished by spending time in prison. She even wears T-shirts with that demand printed on them.

“Bullies with badges and their accomplices murdered my son!!!! Protecting killers is a crime” is written on a shirt that she told The Denver Post is one of her favorites.

On Wednesday, she remembered her son’s gentle spirit and the little details that only a mother can recall — that his favorite color was blue and that, as a child, he only would accept blue lollipops.

“I miss him,” she said. “I remember him for who he was and how he treated other people. I appreciate him letting me be his mother.”

After the indictments were announced, LaWayne Mosely, Elijah McClain’s father, said, “Nothing will bring back my son, but I am thankful that his killers will finally be held accountable,” according to a statement from his attorney, Mari Newman.

Polis issued a statement calling Colorado residents to come together to build a future in which people can walk home safely.

“Elijah McClain’s death was a tragedy and my thoughts are with his mother, father, friends and family today. This innocent young man should be here today,” he said.

The indictment also pleased the activists who pushed for justice by marching in the streets, attending community forums and speaking up at Aurora City Council meetings.

Lindsay Minter, a community activist in Aurora, offered a sentiment shared by many: The indictment doesn’t bring back Elijah, but it’s a step in holding people accountable for wrongdoing. Now people have their sights set on the trials.

“I’ll never be happy because Elijah didn’t have to die that night if people had just been human,” Minter said. “Elijah is a unifying force in Colorado to bring people together. Everybody put in a lot of hard work to get here.”