A jury on Monday acquitted Nathan Woodyard on charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the second trial concerning the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain following an altercation with Aurora, Colorado, police.
Woodyard was the first police officer on the scene in August 2019 and put McClain in a carotid hold. He pleaded not guilty.
We are respectful of the process in what is a very difficult case," Woodyard's lawyers, Megan Downing and Andrew Ho, said in a statement following the verdict. "We have never disregarded the tragic circumstances, but are relieved for what we believe is the just outcome for our client."
"Today's verdict is not the one we hoped for, but we respect the jury system and accept this outcome," Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said, in part, in a statement. "I thank the jurors for serving and performing their civic duty."
Misleading headline.
1 of the 3 cops was convicted.
The 2 paramedics who administered the overdose of ketamine are awaiting trial.
When EMTs arrived at the scene, McClain was given a shot of 500 milligrams of ketamine for "rapid tranquilization in order to minimize time struggling," according to department policy, and was loaded into an ambulance where he had a heart attack, according to investigators.
…
I’ve had some significant ket in my life but half a fuckin gram?
A hole is 1mg/kg of body weight. 500mg could put down a… car.
I’ve done 100-150mg+ (more than I should have for my body weight) and it was the most intense, horrific time I’ve ever had (way more intense than DMT breakthroughs) and that’s like four times less than what this dude was given.
carotid hold? The fuck ?
Pretty much a choke holds constricting the blood traveling to your brain. In just a few seconds anyone would lose consciousness.
I know that the carotid is a major artery and that's why I am baffled that this even allowed. Who's training USA police to use such fucked up moves on civilians ? There gotta be far less dangerous moves that can be used to restrain someone.
Entirely agreed on that!
We pay our tax dollars to teach our police officers "killology". It's as bad as it sounds.
Bold of you to assume US police gets training
Forgive my ignorance, what makes it so dangerous?
The first comment under mine pretty much answers it. The carotid artery is the one responsible for giving blood to your head and brain.
I'm not following. If you're talking about cerebral hypoxia, it requires requires oxygen deprivation on the order of minutes, while carotid holds are effective on the order of seconds.
Knocking someone unconscious is always dangerous. More so if you're injecting them with drugs.
