Members of Aurora City Council’s safety committee are requesting an independent, third-party investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, an unarmed 23-year-old black man who died in August after an encounter with Aurora police and paramedics.

“As the members of Aurora City Council’s Public Safety, Courts, & Civil Service Commission policy committee, we have watched the events over the last several days and it has become clear that public trust has been eroded,” Council members Allison Hiltz, Curtis Gardner and Angela Lawson wrote in a letter to Jim Twombly, Aurora’s city manager, Tuesday morning.

“We know that the status quo is no longer acceptable in our criminal justice system,” they continued. “Our community has experienced pain and as leaders it is our responsibility to take the first step in restoring public trust.”

The trio not only called for an independent investigation into the McClain case, but also stated that the council’s safety committee would be taking “concrete steps” toward change over the next several months, including reviewing the following policies:

• Use-of-force directives
• Chokeholds and strangleholds ban
• Required warnings before discharging a firearm
• Training standards related to de-escalation and mediation
• Requirements of a duty-to-intervene policy
• Return-to-work protocols after excessive force complaints
• Evaluation of data around disciplinary action and the grievance process

The reviews will be conducted in collaboration with the community members and organizations that are already involved in these efforts, according to the council members. The process is meant to be a “first step” in improving community relations in Aurora.

“We’d like to caution the public before drawing conclusions regarding any desired outcome of an independent investigation – while no outcome is guaranteed, a review is intended to lend greater transparency and accountability to the events that occurred,” the three wrote. “In addition, we are committed to using the findings to inform policy changes in Aurora that may help prevent a repeat in the future.”

Hundreds of protesters gathered at Aurora Municipal Center on June 6 to honor the life of McClain and demand justice for his death, calls that are strengthening in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who was killed in the custody of white Minneapolis police. 

An online petition, started a week ago, also is circulating and has garnered more than 800,000 signatures in support of reopening the investigation of McClain’s death and removing the officers involved from duty. The goal is to reach one million signatures.

“I don’t open up investigations based on petitions,” Adams County District Attorney Dave Young told Colorado Politics in a phone interview late Monday afternoon. “Obviously, if there is new evidence to look at, I will look at the evidence in any case.

“But no,” he said, “I’m not going to open up an investigation because people are signing a petition.”

The Aurora Police Department said it is aware of the petition, but has not taken any actions regarding the police officers who were involved.

“We’re always reviewing our policies and procedures to see if there’s any changes that need to be made,” department spokesman, Officer Matthew Longshore, said Monday. “We’re taking this petition into consideration, but we haven’t made any determinations at this point.”

McClain was walking home with groceries around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2019, when a passerby reported him as a “suspicious person” wearing a ski mask and waving his arms, police have said. His family has said McClain had the blood condition anemia, which made him cold-natured and inclined to wear his ski mask to help keep warm. Friends believe he was his arms were in the air likely because he was dancing, something they have said he enjoyed doing.

The Denver native and massage therapist did not stop when approached by law enforcement, and was therefore tackled by police, put in a chokehold and held on the ground for 15 minutes. McClain eventually began vomiting and complained he couldn’t breathe.

“There was a physical struggle,” former APD Chief Nick Metz said in October. “When (police) saw (McClain), they told him to stop. He wouldn’t stop. Again, he was wearing a ski mask, it’s 10:30 p.m. at night in a residential area, so obviously that creates some concern.”

At the time, Metz said that because McClain appeared to be in an “agitated mental state,” police requested backup from Aurora Fire paramedics, who injected McClain with the sedative ketamine to subdue his reported anxiety before driving him to a hospital.

McClain apparently suffered a heart attack, fell into a coma and died once taken off life support Aug. 30.

In November, Young, the 17th Judicial District Attorney, ruled that criminal charges would not be pressed against officers involved in the detention and arrest of McClain because there was no indisputable evidence that an officer used “unjustified” force.