Former Aurora Officer Sentenced to 14 Months in Death of Elijah McClain

The only Aurora police officer convicted among the three charged in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain was sentenced to 14 months and four years of probation in Adams County Jail on Friday afternoon.

On Oct. 12, 2023, a jury convicted now-former cop Randy Roedema of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault for his actions leading up to the 23-year-old’s death. Roedema was one of the five first responders indicted in the case, including fellow Aurora officers Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt, who restrained and subdued McClain in a carotid hold, which cuts off oxygen to the brain, after an emergency caller flagged him as wearing a ski mask and looking “sketchy.”

He repeatedly said that he could not breathe, and during the incident, Roedema, who alleged that McClain had attempted to take Rosenblatt’s gun, was captured on body camera footage picking him up and slamming him into the ground. Later that evening, Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec injected McClain with ketamine, leading to his death.

Read more at The Daily Beast.