Key takeaways:
- Nathan Woodyard, Randy Roedema, Jason Rosenblatt, Jeremy Cooper, and Peter Cichuniec pleaded not guilty to charges related to the death of Elijah McClain.
- The charges stem from an incident in August 2019 when Woodyard and Roedema placed McClain in a chokehold and Cooper and Cichuniec injected him with ketamine.
- The five individuals will be tried in three separate trials later this year in Adams County District Court.
Five individuals, including two police officers and two paramedics, pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges related to the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died in Aurora, Colorado in 2019.
The individuals, Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema of the Aurora Police Department, Jason Rosenblatt, a former Aurora police officer, and Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, both paramedics with Aurora Fire Rescue, were charged with one count each of manslaughter and one count each of criminally negligent homicide.
The charges stem from an incident in August 2019, when a 911 caller reported a man who seemed “sketchy.” Woodyard and Roedema responded to the call and placed McClain in a chokehold. Cooper and Cichuniec then injected him with a powerful sedative called ketamine.
An amended autopsy report released last year concluded that McClain would have most likely survived but for the administration of a dose of ketamine that was higher than recommended for someone his size.
The five individuals will be tried in three separate trials later this year in Adams County District Court.
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