Eliza McClain: White police officer sentenced to 14 months in prison for his death

White policeman in USA sentenced to 14 months in prison yesterday Friday for his role in the death of Elijah McClain, a young African-American man who was subjected to a headlock by police during his 2019 arrest and heavily sedated.

The sentencing judge said he was “shocked by the apparent indifference” of the officer “to the plight” of the young man, “who was wearing handcuffs and really posed no threat to anyone”.

From the three policemen of those prosecuted in this case, a symbol of police brutality in the US, only Randy Redima was found guilty of manslaughter in October. His two other colleagues were acquitted.

The judge imposed on him and a four-year suspended sentence.

“Randy Redima will remain a peasant with a police badge,” complained Sinine McClain, Eliza’s mother, denouncing “the inhumane protocols” of the police. According to her, “prison is the only justice the policeman deserves”.

The death of the 23-year-old African-American man in Aurora, Colorado initially it had not attracted the attention of the public. But that changed after the death of George Floyd, another African-American who died in May 2020 during his violent arrest by a white police officer.

Eliza McClain died three days after his arrest of cardiac arrest. During his arrest, the police put a headlock on him, while two paramedics administered ketamine, a powerful sedative.

In a separate trial, the rescuers were found guilty in December of manslaughter and await sentencing.

“We reacted as we are trained,” Redima claimed in court yesterday. The former police officer, who has now been dismissed from the force, also expressed his “sincere condolences”.

On the evening of August 24, 2019, police received a call from a citizen who reported that a man wearing a thick coat and ski mask, despite being hot, was “acting strangely” on an Aurora street. A policeman claimed that the McClainwhere was it unarmedtried to grab his gun.

The police arrested McClain within seconds and they headlocked him at least twice. He vomited into his ski mask and repeatedly told officers that he can’t breathe.

According to the victim’s family, he had simply gone to buy a drink and often wore his ski mask to keep out the cold.

“There was no reason for Randy Redima to put his knee on my son’s back and sit on him”McClain’s mother insisted, recalling that her son was “already wearing handcuffs” and “just needed to sit in a better position so he could breathe.”

McClain’s initial autopsy in 2019 did not return a specific cause of death. However, a new autopsy in 2021 said the young African-American man died “of complications from ketamine administration after being forcibly restrained.”

Colorado prosecutors initially declined to investigate the case, which changed after Floyd’s death and after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis asked for a retrial in June 2020 after meeting with the dead man’s family.

A petition to reopen the investigation had gathered more than three million signatures.