DENVER—Three Colorado police officers and two paramedics pleaded not guilty on Friday to homicide charges in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, a Black man subdued by police, placed in a choke hold and injected with a sedative, though he was neither armed nor suspected of a crime.
Attorneys for all five defendants entered pleas of not guilty to manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges. The arraignment was in Adams County, the jurisdiction where the killing took place.
McClain, 23, was walking home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Aug. 24, 2019, when he was confronted by police responding to a report that he was acting suspiciously, although he was not suspected of having committed a crime….