- Elijah McClain died in 2019 after he was tackled, choked, and injected with ketamine.
- His family filed a lawsuit the following year.
- Aurora, Colorado has agreed to pay a record $15 million to McClain's family as a part of the settlement.
The city of Aurora, Colorado has agreed to pay $15 million to Elijah McClain's family, more than two years since the 23-year-old Black man died in 2019 after he was violently arrested by police, multiple news outlets reported Friday. His death drew widespread attention and protests.
The agreement is the latest in a string of high-profile settlements over police brutality lawsuits, which includes Minneapolis' agreement to pay the family of George Floyd $27 million following his 2020 murder, which sparked national outcry.
This settlement is the largest ever in a Colorado civil rights case, an attorney for McClain's father told the Associated Press.
McClain was walking home from a convenience store on Aug. 24 when he was stopped by police. He was wearing headphones and a black ski mask. McClain was confronted by Aurora police officers who responded to a report of a "suspicious" person "walking and waving his arms," according to a February investigation into the altercation. The independent probe found that the officers had no legal basis for stopping, frisking, or using a chokehold against McClain, Insider previously reported.
The report also found that the reasons officers gave for suspecting McClain had committed, was committing, or was about to commit a crime — including that he was acting "suspicious" and in an area with a "high crime rate" — were not sufficient to establish reasonable suspicion under the law.
According to the probe, the paramedics who sedated McClain with ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, did so "without conducting anything more than a brief visual observation." Body camera footage showed McClain "crying out in pain, apologizing, explaining himself, and pleading with the officers," the report said.
McClain was taken to a hospital and suffered a cardiac arrest on the way. He died on Aug. 30, 2019, nearly a week after the encounter.
McClain's parents filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in August 2020 alleging McClain's constitutional rights were violated by Aurora police officers and paramedics.
A grand jury in September indicted three police officers and two paramedics on 32 counts, including charges of manslaughter, the state's attorney general announced in September.
"No amount of money will ever bring Elijah back to his mother. Ms. McClain would return every cent for just one more day with her son," said Rathod Mohamedbhai, the Denver law firm representing Sheneen McClain in a statement to NBC News.
The settlement was agreed to months earlier but not announced due to a dispute of how the money should be divided between McClain's parents, the Associated Press reported.
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