The demonstrators held placards that read “The life of a black man is also a life” and “Walter Wallace JR”. And DEFUND PPD” because they gathered to protest near the location where Walter Wallace Jr. was killed by two police officers on October 27, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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- Elijah McClain suffered a cardiac arrest after being choked and injected with ketamine in 2019.
- Five defendants, including three police officers, face one count of manslaughter and one count of manslaughter due to McLean’s death.
- The police received a call stating that a “suspicious” black male was “behaving strangely” in the street and wearing a ski mask.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday that Colorado had filed criminal charges against three police officers and two paramedics, including manslaughter, on the death of a young black man who was pinched by police and injected with ketamine in 2019.
Last year, the governor of the western United States launched a special investigation amidst a wave of public outrage, including an online petition supported by celebrities calling for justice.
“Each of the five defendants faces one count of manslaughter and one count of manslaughter,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weather in charge of the investigation.
The four defendants face further charges of assault, including two paramedics who used strong tranquilizers on McLean without consent.
Weizel said:
We are here today because Elijah McClain is not here, and he should be.
McLean’s death in the western United States occurred months before another black, George Floyd, was killed in Minneapolis in May 2020, triggering a national reckoning of racism and police brutality.
McLean died in Aurora near Denver in August 2019. Three days later, he was strangled by the police, injected ketamine to calm him and suffered a cardiac arrest.
The police received a call stating that a “suspicious” black male was “behaving strangely” in the street and wearing a ski mask.
One police officer said that unarmed McLean reached out to grab another police officer’s gun.
McLean’s family told the media that he has been buying iced tea outside and often wears a mask to keep him warm because he suffers from anemia.
Read also | Former policeman Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22 and a half years for killing George Freud
Governor Jared Polis appointed the Colorado Attorney General to investigate the case in June 2020. He said at the time that he was “moved” after talking to the victim’s mother Xining.
“He is a son, a nephew, a brother and a friend. When he died, he was only 23 years old. He has been waiting for him all his life,” Weatherer said on Wednesday.
The TV host Ellen DeGeneres was one of the celebrities who supported the investigation last year, using the hashtag #JusticeForElijahMcClain.
After the allegations were announced on Wednesday, McLean’s name became popular again on Twitter.
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