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The parents of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died last year after police twice put him in a chokehold and paramedics sedated him, have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.

The lawsuit names as defendants the city of Aurora, Colo., as well as numerous Aurora police officers, a paramedic and the medical director of Aurora Fire Rescue.

McClain was not suspected of committing any crimes when police approached him, as Colorado Public Radio's Allison Sherry 

McClain suffered cardiac arrest and died 

Why are you attacking me? Why are you attacking me? I don't even kill flies. I don't even kill flies. I don't eat meat. I don't eat meat." —

 have become the chants of protests this summer as those demanding justice for McClain have compared his death to that of George Floyd's in Minneapolis.

The complaint alleges that there was no reason for McClain to be sedated with ketamine, and that the dose he was administered was too large for his body weight.

Three separate investigations into McClain's death are now underway: by the federal government,

In June, three Aurora police officers were fired due to 

 in which officers posed near a memorial for McClain, imitating the chokehold that was used on him. Three of the officers involved in that incident are among those named in the lawsuit.

 McClain's family lawyer, Mari Newman, said in a statement Tuesday that the lawsuit is intended "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 it longstanding pattern of brutal and racist policing." 

Crime, Law and Justice

Social Issues

Conversations around race and racial justice

The murder of George Floyd

Laurel Wamsley

Author

The federal civil rights lawsuit alleges the parties are responsible for McClain's death last year after police put the 23-year-old in two chokeholds and injected him with ketamine.

Parents of Elijah McClain sue city of Aurora, Colo., and police over his death

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