(Los Angeles) Three American police officers and two nurses, prosecuted for the death of Elijah McClain, a young black man who died in 2019 during an intervention, pleaded not guilty on Friday to manslaughter in the State of Colorado, according to the local press.
In August 2019, aged 23, he had, during an arrest in Aurora, suffered a key to the neck then had been forcibly injected with a powerful tranquilizer, and died three days later of a heart attack.
His death had not attracted the attention of the American media before that of George Floyd, another African-American killed during a police intervention in May 2020, brought his case – and others – to light. spotlights.
The proceedings against the five accused were launched in September 2021, after the conclusions of a special investigation opened at the request of the governor of this western American state in the face of the scandal caused by the death of the young man. A petition launched to reopen the investigation had collected more than three million signatures.
The five all pleaded not guilty in a Colorado court on Friday, according to the denver post.
On the day of the incident, police were called by someone describing a “suspicious” black man wearing a ski mask and “behaving strangely” on a street in Aurora. A police officer claimed that Elijah McClain, who was unarmed, had tried to seize his revolver during the intervention.
According to the victim’s family, he had simply gone out to buy a drink and often wore this ski mask.