A former police officer in the western US state of Colorado has been sentenced to 14 months in jail for his role in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was not suspected of any crime when police roughly restrained him and paramedics injected him with a powerful sedative.
Before the judge handed down the sentence on Friday, McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, condemned Randy Roedema, the only law enforcement official to be found guilty.
Roedema was found guilty in October of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault. The same jury found fellow police officer Jason Rosenblatt not guilty in a joint trial.
Police confronted McClain, 23, on the night of August 24, 2019, after a bystander called 911 to report that a man was dressed in a winter coat and ski mask on a warm night, and was acting suspiciously as he walked home from a convenience store.
Police laid hands on McClain within seconds of stopping him and put him in a carotid chokehold at least twice. He vomited into his ski mask and repeatedly told officers he could not breathe.
