Aurora’s police and fire departments have agreed to improve their use-of-force policies and training, develop a new system to collect data about police interactions with members of the community, and work to hire officers and firefighters that better reflect the city’s diversity as part of a consent decree with state prosecutors unveiled Tuesday. “The city […]
Aurora Fire Rescue
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
The city of Aurora has reached a settlement with Elijah McClain’s family
The city of Aurora has reached a settlement agreement in the federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Elijah McClain’s family, more than two years after the 23-year-old died after Aurora police officers confronted him and paramedics sedated him with ketamine while he was walking home from a convenience store. Attorneys representing Sheneen McClain, Elijah’s mother, […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
6 ways Colorado’s laws have recently changed to prevent another death like Elijah McClain’s
Elijah McClain’s death two years ago inspired a wave of new laws from the Colorado legislature and Gov. Jared Polis aimed at preventing something similar from ever happening again. From new rules on how and when the powerful sedative ketamine can be administered in situations involving law enforcement to a ban on neck holds, Colorado […]
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Aurora Police Department to get independent monitor following Elijah McClain’s death
Aurora city leaders will create an independent police monitor in the wake of a scathing independent report released Monday on the Aurora Police Department’s actions before and after Elijah McClain’s death. City Manager Jim Twombly announced the effort in a news conference Tuesday. He called the department’s handling of McClain’s death “the failure of a […]
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“Just unprecedented”: Aurora Police saw 60% rise in officers leaving department last year
By Quincy Snowdon, Sentinel Colorado The number of officers who left the Aurora Police Department last year rose by more than 60% from 2019, according to Human Resources data slated to be presented to a city council panel Thursday. A total of 87 police personnel left or were jettisoned from the department in 2020 — […]
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Aurora police officers, medics ask for dismissal of Elijah McClain lawsuit
Aurora police officers and medics sued over the death of Elijah McClain are asking a judge to dismiss the federal lawsuit. In one of several dismissal motions filed late Monday, lawyers for the three police officers who confronted and struggled with McClain, a Black man who had been reported as suspicious as he walked down […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, Health, News
Colorado medics may have misdiagnosed “excited delirium” hundreds of times when dosing people with ketamine
Paramedics unnecessarily sedated hundreds of people with ketamine during confrontations with police officers in Colorado, exposing them to potentially life-threatening complications associated with the drug. That’s according to an estimate from Dr. Mark DeBard, a professor emeritus of emergency medicine at Ohio State University and expert in cases of “excited delirium.” “It may represent a […]
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Coloradans dosed with ketamine during police confrontations — like Elijah McClain was — want investigation
A growing number of people want Colorado officials to pause or ban medics from using ketamine on people during escalated confrontations with police. The list includes two men who were given the powerful anesthetic when medics and police decided they showed signs of “excited delirium” or extreme “agitation.” “I felt like it was over,” said […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News
Medics in Colorado dosed 902 people with ketamine for “excited delirium” in 2.5 years, including Elijah McClain
This story was originally published by KUNC. Read more at kunc.org More than 100 agencies across Colorado have approval from the state to allow medics to use ketamine, an anesthetic, on people who show signs of what’s often dubbed “excited delirium,” a practice that is now drawing national criticism from anesthesiologists and psychiatrists. Yet emergency […]