CO City to Pay $15 Million Over In-Custody Death

The tentative agreement amounts to roughly $15 million to be awarded to the family of Elijah McClain, KCNC-TV in Denver first reported Wednesday, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations.

The suburban Denver city of Aurora, CO, has agreed to pay $15 million to the family of a black man killed during a confrontation with police in order to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit, according to a report. 

The tentative agreement amounts to roughly $15 million to be awarded to the family of Elijah McClain, KCNC-TV in Denver first reported Wednesday, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations.

The city of Aurora confirmed in mid-October that a settlement had been reached in the lawsuit over McClain’s August 2019 death and will be signed by city leaders, but a spokesperson at that time declined to disclose its terms until the family completed a separate process to work out how the settlement money will be divided amongst themselves, Fox News reports.

In September, a Colorado grand jury indicted three officers and two paramedics in the death of Elijah McClain, who was put in a "chokehold" and injected with a powerful sedative two years ago in Aurora. Aurora police stopped McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, as he walked home from a store on Aug. 24, 2019, after a 911 caller reported a man wearing a ski mask and waving his hands who seemed "sketchy."

Paramedics injected McClain with 500 milligrams of ketamine, an amount appropriate for someone 77 pounds heavier than McClain’s 143-pound frame, according to the indictment. He fell unconscious, was pronounced brain-dead at a hospital, and was taken off life support.

At a Tuesday press conference, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser also announced that the city of Aurora had agreed to reforms after the killing of Elijah McClain led to the indictments against officers and a first-of-its-kind civil rights investigation found a pattern of racially biased policing and excessive force.

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