Three officers and the two paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were charged in his death. Two officers have been acquitted and one, Randy Roedema, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide.
Cooper and Cichuniec, who are amid their trial now as co-defendants, followed their protocol for “excited delirium” in 2019, their attorneys said in opening statements, which calls for use of chemical sedation.
McClain’s death sparked state lawmakers to pass a new law that strictly limited the use of ketamine in non-medical settings.
State Rep. Judy Amabile, who represents Boulder, has been outspoken about reforming police language and training in mental health crises.
“I’m really glad to see this,” she said. “Now we need to make sure we don’t substitute one term for another term and we do in fact change the culture a little bit and say we are going to describe symptoms and we’re going to train on appropriate responses to the behaviors we are seeing.”
And now, police officers are not going to be allowed to use the term, or train on the diagnosis, at all.
State officials also voted to strike other terms from law enforcement training manuals, including “cocaine psychosis” and “sudden in custody death.”
“Students will learn and understand procedures for first aid and transfer to medical care of subjects who are in custody,” the state document said. “The students will learn and understand law enforcement roles in violent encounters with subjects in altered mental states or a justifiable medical emergency.”
The Peace Officers Standards and Training, or POST, board started looking into striking the term from all law enforcement language about six months ago and voted on it today after a presentation from a subcommittee charged in improving arrest control tactics training, said Erik Bourgerie, the POST director.
Fort Collins Police Chief Jeff Swoboda, who is on the POST board and voted to strike the term, said he supports the move away from the diagnoses in favor of more neutral terms that talk about suspects in “distress.”
“Looking at distress and the care people should receive after any sort of arrest and when they’re in custody and getting the help that they need is where my understanding was,” he said. “And now recognizing, if someone is in distress whatsoever, how should we treat people in custody?”
Coates, who was among the activists pushing for answers from Aurora city officials since 2019 in McClain’s death, said he’s watched the body-worn camera and McClain didn’t show any signs of combativeness with law enforcement that night and that officers were clearly using the language that he was “crazy strong” as a move to protect themselves.
“He was not wild. I’m sure that Elijah threw bigger fits when he was being disciplined as a kid than he did that day with the police officers. I didn’t hear that type of rage. I’ve seen people be combative with police, and that wasn’t there.”
— Hashim Coates, Aurora community activist and political strategist
Colorado Matters Producer Tom Hesse contributed to this story.