In June, an image filled with text circulated on social media that wrote Elijah McClain's rumored last words in the wake of his death in a police encounter.
A man's suspicious death
In August of last year, Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man, was on his way home after buying from a store when police officers blocked his path in Aurora, Colorado. The officers were responding to a report that there was a suspicious person with a ski mask.
According to Snopes, the encounter between police and McClain escalated, resulting in officers placing the black man in a chokehold and after a few days, resulted in McClain's death.
McClain occasionally wore masks whenever he went outside as he was suffering from a blood condition called anemia, leading him to get cold very quickly, as his family revealed.
After some struggle In the encounter, McClain was handcuffed, and officers immediately requested for paramedics on the scene. Respondents from the Aurora Fire Rescue injected McClain with ketamine, later on, to try and sedate him.
During McClain's transfer to a nearby hospital, he suffered cardiac arrest and later on Friday was declared "brain dead." His family expected him to be taken off of life support that afternoon and was later pronounced dead.
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Medical experts are unclear of the exact cause of McClain's cardiac arrest as an autopsy report by the Adams County coroner stated that the victim's cause of death was still undetermined.
The report added the cardiac arrest could have been caused by several options including natural, the police's chokehold, and could have been an accident.
"I'm sorry"
However, during his detention, McClain was seen to be in a state of distress, vomiting multiple times after police officers retrained him and pinned him to the ground. He then apologized to the officers for the incident and said it was an accident that resulted because he could not breathe properly, as reported by The New York Times.
It can be seen in the footage of the police officers' body camera that they had knocked him out with a chokehold two times and can be heard saying "at least once successfully," suggesting McClain had lost consciousness.
One report wrote that McClain was struggling violently against officers who were trying to hold him down. It also claimed that the victim's physical exertion could have resulted in his death and said it was unclear if the actions of the officers had any effect on him.
The lawyer who is representing McClain's family, Mari Newman, said that in response to the autopsy report, McClain would still be alive if police officers did not attack him during the encounter.
During the encounter, police officers threw McClain to the ground after they pushed him against a wall when he allegedly tried to grab one of their guns. The officers said the attempt was not seen in the footage because their body cameras had fallen off into the grass nearby.
According to The Sun, McClain's mother demanded the cops involved in her son's death be held responsible for their horrifying actions as the governor of Colorado reopens an investigation looking into the 23-year-old black man's death.
