AURORA, Colorado – Former police officer Randy Roedema has been sentenced to 14 months in jail for his involvement in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after being restrained by police and injected with a powerful sedative by paramedics.
McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, expressed her contempt for Roedema, the only law enforcement official to be convicted in the case, before the judge handed down the sentence on Friday. She condemned Roedema, stating that he “stole my son’s life” and that “all the belated apologies in the world can’t remove my son’s blood from Randy Roedema’s hands.”
Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in October, while fellow police officer Jason Rosenblatt was acquitted in a joint trial. The incident occurred when police confronted McClain, 23, who was reported by a bystander for acting suspiciously while walking home from a convenience store.
Within seconds of stopping him, police placed McClain in a carotid chokehold at least twice. The original autopsy in 2019 deemed the cause of death as “undetermined,” but a revised autopsy in 2021 concluded that McClain died from “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint.”
In a separate trial, two paramedics were convicted last month of criminally negligent homicide for injecting McClain with an overdose of the sedative ketamine. They are scheduled to be sentenced in March.
The killing of McClain initially received little attention, but gained renewed scrutiny after the 2020 killing of George Floyd. With Colorado Governor Jared Polis requesting an investigation into the case following Floyd’s death, a state grand jury indicted the officers and paramedics in 2021.
The sentencing of Roedema and the paramedics reflects the accountability sought in cases of police misconduct, bringing attention to the consequences of excessive force and negligent actions in law enforcement.