Elijah McClain
Elijah McClain, 23, was arrested in Aurora, Colorado on Aug. 24, 2019 by officers who were responding to a call about a “suspicious person”. Before the incident, McClain had no arrest record. McClain allegedly refused officers’ commands to stop. He was tackled and pinned to the ground. Officers used a “carotid control hold” on McClain, who weighed 140 pounds. McClain whimpered and cried, asking the officers to stop. He complained that he couldn’t breath, and he vomited multiple times. “Aurora officers confronted this innocent, unarmed man by immediately going hands-on, grabbing Elijah, throwing him down, applying a carotid choke hold — twice — and continuing to inflict multiple other types of force even after Elijah’s hands were cuffed behind his back,” said attorney Mari Newman, in a written statement, on behalf McClain’s family. Newman said McClain “had done absolutely nothing wrong. He was just trying to walk home.” The night of the incident, an officer threatened McClain, who was bound and incapacitated at the time, with siccing a dog on him. An excessive force review board with the Aurora Police Department found that this force was ‘within policy and consistent with training,’