The interim police chief of Aurora, Colorado today announced the immediate dismissal of two of the three officers who took a selfie mocking the chokehold of Elijah McClain, who died three days later.
The third officer had resigned earlier in the week, and a fourth–who was involved in the incident involving McClain–was fired for responding humorously to a message containing the photo.
According to the Denver Post, Interim Chief Vanessa Wilson, noting that the photo was taken at the site where police put the chokehold on McClain, compared the photo to a Jim Crow-era custom of taking photos at the site of lynchings.
The three officers fired were Jason Rosenblatt, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich; Rosenblatt was the officer involved in the McClain encounter and had received the message containing the photo. Former officer Jaren Jones had resigned Tuesday.
McClain was stopped by Aurora police last August after being reported as a suspicious person for wearing a ski mask into a convenience store; reportedly McCain suffered from anemia and was prone to feeling cold.
Body camera footage shows McClain being thrown to the ground by officers, one of whom put the 23-year-old into a chokehold. An ambulance was called to the scene, and EMTs administered a sedative before taking McClain to the hospital, where he died three days later.
Aurora police had come under additional scrutiny last weekend when police broke up a peaceful vigil for McClain featuring violinists performing; McClain was a self-taught violinist.