A white police officer was found not guilty Monday in the death of a Black man who died after being placed in a chokehold and given ketamine during his arrest.
A jury in the western state of Colorado found Aurora police officer Nathan Woodyard not guilty of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent murder in the death of Elijah McClain in August 2019.
The not guilty conviction came less than a month after a jury found Randy Roedema guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault but acquitted Jason Rosenblatt.
Roedema is due to be sentenced in January.
McClain died three days later following a scuffle with police and being given with ketamine, a potent anesthetic, by responding paramedics. When the circumstances of the case became public, they spurred a celebrity-backed internet petition demanding for justice.
Police responded to a report of a “suspicious” Black male “acting weird” in the street while wearing a ski mask.
One officer said McClain, who was unarmed, had reached for another officer’s gun.
No evidence was produced to support this claim.
McClain’s family informed the reporters that he had been out buying iced tea and that he frequently wore the mask to stay warm due to anemia.
McClain’s death happened months before the death of another Black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis in May 2020, which sparked a national awakening over racism and police brutality.
According to CNN, the attending paramedics, Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper, will stand trial in the following weeks.