A jury on Monday found Aurora, Colorado, officer Nathan Woodyard not guilty in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain. Woodyard put the 23-year-old black man in a chokehold that rendered him temporarily unconscious.
Woodyard was the first officer to confront McClain as he was walking home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado. Prosecutors argued Woodyard grabbed McClain within eight seconds of stepping out of his patrol car, failing to introduce himself or explain why he was being stopped.
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In August 2019, McClain was on his way home when a passerby called 911 and reported McClain was acting “sketchy.” He was confronted by Aurora police officers, placed in a chokehold, and tackled to the ground, telling officers he was unable to breathe. Later, paramedics injected McClain with a powerful sedative, ketamine, and he never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead after being taken off life support after three days.
In 2022, an amended autopsy report changed his cause of death from “undetermined” to declare that he died from complications from the administration of ketamine following forcible restraint.
Woodyard’s defense attorney insisted that he followed protocol, blaming McClain’s death on the injection of ketamine, and said Woodyard feared for his life after another officer said McClain attempted to grab one of their guns.
Aurora police officer Randy Roedema told investigators McClain was attempting to grab the gun of Jason Rosenblatt, another officer on the scene. Roedema was found guilty last month of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in McClain’s death. The same jury found Rosenblatt not guilty on manslaughter and assault charges. The trial for the two paramedics who were charged criminally in McClain's death is expected to start later this month.
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McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, sat with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in the courtroom when the verdict was read. She later walked out with a fist up, alongside a friend, asking the media that approached her to “please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.” Sheneen McClain directly quoted her son’s words after an officer grabbed him in the incident four years ago.
“I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking. I'm going home. … Leave me alone,” McClain can be heard saying through police body camera video. “You guys started to arrest me, and I was stopping my music to listen.”