A Colorado officer has been found guilty of the death of a man who was put in a neck hold and given ketamine.
Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide over the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, an autistic black man who was stopped by police as he walked home from a convenience shop in the city of Aurora.
Roedema, who was also convicted of third-degree assault, faces three years in prison on the homicide charge. Fellow officer Jason Rosenblatt was found not guilty.
Mr McClain’s mother, Sheneen, expressed disappointment with the verdict, telling reporters: “This is the divided States of America, and that’s what happens.”
The 23-year-old had been stopped by police following a suspicious person report but was not accused of any crime.
He was wearing a balaclava, which his family has said protected him from chronic chills due to his anaemia. He was wearing headphones and had initially ignored officers’ calls for him to stop walking.
Body camera footage of the incident showed him pleading with officers that he had done nothing wrong, before they wrestled him to the ground and placed him in a chokehold.
Mr McClain was heard telling the officers: “I can’t breathe” - the same refrain uttered by George Floyd as he was murdered by a police officer in 2020
Jurors heard how Roedema and another officer who was not charged held down Mr McClain while paramedics administered ketamine.
Alongside Roedema and Rosenblatt, a third Aurora officer, who applied the neck hold, and two paramedics have been charged in connection with the case.
Their trials are due to start later this year.
Roedema’s lawyer claimed the officers were forced to react when Mr McClain resisted and allegedly reached for the gun of one of the officers - a claim prosecutors rejected.
The case came to widespread attention after the killing of George Floyd the following year and sparked outrage.
His pleas with officers were captured on body camera footage, with Mr McClain telling them: “I’m an introvert and I’m different.”
Judge Mark Warner set sentencing for January 5, 2024.
The three officers charged were the first on the scene and the ones who took him down to the ground.
Roedema and Rosenblatt blamed his death days after the restraint on the ketamine administered by paramedics, but prosecutors argued that the officers’ restraint of Mr McClain contributed.
They also alleged they encouraged the paramedics to administer the ketamine and did not tell them of his complaints that he couldn’t breathe.
Aurora Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department respected the jury’s verdict, adding “we must be committed to the rule of law."
