A judge sentenced an ex-Colorado police officer to 14 months in jail for his role in the death of Elijah McClain after hearing the young Black man's mother on Friday call the officer a "bully with a badge" who will always have blood on his hands. The officer, Randy Roedema, was the most senior law enforcement member to initially respond to the scene and the only one found guilty. A jury convicted him in October of criminally negligent homicide, which is a felony, and third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, per the AP. The incident involving the 23-year-old McClain on Aug. 24, 2019, received little attention at the time, but it gained renewed interest the following year as mass protests swept the nation over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. McClain's death became a rallying cry for critics of racial injustice in policing.
In a separate trial, two paramedics were recently convicted for injecting McClain with an overdose of the sedative ketamine after police put him in a neck hold. Sentencing for the paramedics will come in March. Before Judge Mark Warner handed down the sentence, McClain's mother, Sheneen McClain, raged against Roedema after he expressed remorse but stopped short of apologizing. "Randy Roedema stole my son's life," she said. "All the belated apologies in the world can't remove my son's blood from Randy Roedema's hands." Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber described how, in the last minutes of McClain's life, he struggled to breathe through vomit, yet still faced violence from Roedema, who picked him up, slammed him down, and dug his knee into his back.
Roedema also spoke at the hearing, as well as his sister and former military colleagues. Roedema was a US Marine who was wounded in Iraq. "I want the McClain family to know the sadness I feel about Elijah being gone. He was young," Roedema said. Roedema said he wished the initial 911 call that reported McClain looking suspicious that night had never been made, but he didn't comment about anything he could have done differently. "We all responded to that incident in a way that we were all trained to do. Needless to say, the situation had a horrible outcome that nobody intended or wanted to happen," Roedema said. McClain was stopped by police after a 911 caller reported that he looked suspicious. Another officer put his hands on McClain within seconds, beginning a struggle and restraint that lasted about 20 minutes before paramedics injected him with the ketamine.
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Experts say the sedative ultimately killed McClain, who was already weakened from struggling to breathe while being pinned down after inhaling vomit into his lungs. Roedema helped hold McClain down while paramedics administered the ketamine. He was often visible in the body camera footage shown over and over to jurors, and he could be heard directing others how to restrain him. "I don't think anybody who's been involved in this case can unsee what was on the videos," Warner said before sentencing Roedema. "Elijah McClain's life mattered," Slothouber added. The sentencing includes the option of work release. Roedema must report to jail by March 22. After the sentencing, Sheneen McClain called the sentence "a slap on the wrist." Roedema's attorney, meanwhile, has said he'll appeal. Much more here.
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