DENVER (NEWSnet/AP) — A trial for two officers charged after the 2019 arrest and death of Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colo., is set to begin Friday with jury selection.

Trials for a third officer and two paramedics on this case are scheduled for later this year.

The trial against officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt involves charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent reckless homicide and assault charges in a trial and is expected to last about a month. They have pleaded not guilty but have never spoken publicly about the allegations against them.

McClain’s fatal encounter with police began on a summer night in 2019 when a 911 caller reported that the young Black man looked “sketchy” as he walked down the street wearing a ski mask and raising his hands in the air. McClain, who was often cold, was walking home from a convenience store, listening to music.

Moments later, police stopped him and after struggling with him, put the 23-year-old in a neck hold. Paramedics then gave him a sedative that officials eventually determined played a key role in his death. McClain, a massage therapist known for his gentle nature, was unarmed and hadn’t committed any crime.

Roedema is currently suspended without pay; and Rosenblatt was fired for making light of other officers’ reenactment of the neck hold.

Police camera footage from the officers played a major role in bringing to light what happened. The officers’ cameras fell off at one point, but kept recording though sometimes only capturing audio.

Three days after the arrest, McClain was pronounced dead in a hospital.

A state grand jury indictment came in 20021, and a revised coroner’s report issued that year said the cause of death was complications from the ketamine but also noted that that occurred after McClain was forcibly restrained. McClain, who weighed 140 pounds, was given a higher dose of ketamine than recommended for someone of his size and overdosed, Pathologist Stephen Cina found.

His death brought increased scrutiny to how police and paramedics use ketamine.

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