Photo: Elijah McClain | By Colleen Slevin, US News / Associated Press | 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 charged in McClain’s death and was the only one found guilty. He was the most senior officer who initially responded to the scene. A jury convicted him in October of criminally negligent homicide, which is a felony, and third-degree assault, which is a misdemeanor.
The 23-year-old’s killing received little attention at the time of his death, but 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.
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Before the judge 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.”
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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. Experts say the sedative ultimately killed McClain, who was already weakened from struggling to breath while being pinned down after inhaling vomit into this lungs.
For Roedema, criminally negligent homicide, defined as killing someone by failing to recognize a substantial risk to their life, carried a punishment of probation up to three years in prison. The assault conviction was punishable by probation up to two years in jail.
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Read the full, heart-breaking, story here:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elijah-mcclain-randy-roedema-sentenced_n_65988494e4b0f9f6621cb9b0
Ex-Colorado Cop Who Killed Elijah McClain Gets 14 Months In Jail
