DENVER (AP) – Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside a suburban Denver police building Saturday to call for justice in the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police last year.
McClain died in August 2019 after being stopped by three Aurora Police Department officers while walking through the east Denver suburb of Aurora.
(Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado via AP, File)
McClain’s death last August has prompted a handful of small protests over the last 10 months, but his case has garnered renewed attention amid a global outcry sparked when George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer May 25.
Marchers walked behind a banner reading, “Justice for Elijah McClain, murdered by Aurora police.”
“The Aurora Police Department has responded by circulating rumors of a ‘violent threat’ in order to intimidate organizers and attendees and to justify mobilizing a militarized police response to crack down on protesters,” the Party for Socialism and Liberation said in a statement posted to Facebook.
