A white police officer was sentenced to 14 months in prison this Friday in USA for the death of an unarmed young African-American man, who was strangled and injected with ketamine during an arrest in 2019.
Colorado Judge Mark Werner sentenced the police officer Randy Roedema for third-degree assault and imposed four years of probation on the additional charge of criminally negligent homicide of Elijah McClainwhich shocked the country at the time.
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McClain, 23, died in August 2019 in Aurora, near Denver, after during the arrest the police strangled him and injected him with ketamine to sedate him, three days later he suffered cardiac arrest.
Judge Mark Warner said the court was “in shock at what appears to be genuine indifference to the suffering of Elijah McClain”.
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Sheneen McClain, the victim’s mother, welcomed the conviction. “Prison is the only justice that Randy Roedema deserves”said.
McClain was stopped on the street in the town of Aurora by police who claimed to be responding to a call about a “suspicious person” who wore a mask and walked “with a strange attitude”.
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An officer said McClain, who was unarmed, had reached for another officer’s gun, but there was no evidence to support the claim.
The young man’s family claimed that he had gone out to buy iced tea and frequently wore the mask to stay warm because he suffered from anemia.
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Three police officers were brought to justice in the case, but only Roedema was found guilty. Meanwhile, officers Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard were acquitted in the case.
Paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper, who assisted in the case, were also charged with criminally negligent homicide, and were found guilty in December.
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McClain’s death occurred months before the Minneapolis murder of George Floydwhich triggered a massive reaction in May 2020 USA with protests against police brutality towards minorities, especially blacks.
