On Wednesday morning, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser shared the results of a months-long grand jury investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, who died several days after a violent encounter with Aurora Police in August 2019.
The grand jury released a 32-count indictment against two Aurora police officers, a former Aurora police officer, and two Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics. Each faces one count of manslaughter and one count of criminally negligent homicide. The charges also include multiple counts of second-degree assault. The attorney general is now filing the indictment with the Adams County District Court.
Shortly after Weiser read the indictment, Colorado Edition spoke with Elijah McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, and the McClain family attorney, Qusair Mohamedbhai.
Mohamedbhai called the moment “historic.”
“We are very surprised, but also not surprised because we have all maintained that Elijah McClain was murdered,” he said. “We hope that the jury will be reviewing all this information, will hold the police officers accountable.”
Sheneen McClain said she was feeling some relief at the grand jury's findings.
“I'm grateful that they saw what I saw, that my son was completely innocent and never should have been stopped by the police or brutalized by them,” she said.
She learned of the indictments on Tuesday, ahead of the public announcement.
“I slept better last night than I have in a while,” she said. “I wanted to share Elijah’s story and his murder around the world. And my efforts are paying off. So there's a lot of people around the world that know that my son should still be alive today.”
