#Elijah McClain’s family sues Colorado police, paramedics over his death

The parents of Elijah McClain — an unarmed black man who died after being placed in a chokehold by police — have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Colorado city of Aurora and the officers and emergency responders involved in his death.

The McClain family said in a statement that they hope to hold the police department accountable for the death of 23-year-old McClain, which they called “murder.”

“We have filed this civil rights lawsuit to demand justice for Elijah McClain, to hold accountable the Aurora officials, police officers, and paramedics responsible for his murder, and to force the City of Aurora to change its longstanding pattern of brutal and racist policing,” the McClain family said in a statement released by their attorney.

Officers stopped McClain last August while he was walking home from a corner store in the city outside of Denver. Police said they had received a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms as he walked down a street.

The cops put McClain in a chokehold during the stop and then turned him over to paramedics, who injected him with 500 milligrams of ketamine.

McClain suffered cardiac arrest and was later declared brain-dead. He was taken off life support several days later.

The family’s suit claims one of the cops thrust his knee into McClain’s arm, “with the sole purpose of inflicting pain by forcefully separating Elijah’s bicep and triceps muscles.”

It also says two of the officers reported that all three of them simultaneously placed their body weight on a 140-pound McClain after a chokehold — an estimated collective weight of over 700 pounds.

State investigators are separately investigating the use of ketamine by the paramedics who responded to the scene. Federal authorities have also been investigating if his death was a civil rights violation.

With Post wires