Washington, July 4 (IANS) Three police officers in the US state of Colorado have been sacked after they shared photos re-enacting a chokehold used on a black man last year who later died.
Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old African-American in Aurora, Colorado, was killed last August after an encounter with police while walking home.
The officers who were fired were identified as Jason Rosenblatt, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich. The fourth, Jaron Jones, has earlier resigned on Tuesday.
Vanessa Wilson, the acting police chief in the Denver suburb of Aurora, where the McClain incident took place, called the images a crime against humanity and decency.
“We are ashamed, we are sickened, and we are angry about what I have to share,” the BBC quoted Wilson as saying at a news conference on Friday.
“While the allegations of this internal affairs case are not criminal, they are a crime against humanity and decency. To even think about doing such a thing is beyond comprehension and it is reprehensible.”
One of the pictures shows Dittrich and Jones imitating a neck hold, while Marrero smiles to their left.
Rosenblatt was sent the photos by text and responded “ha ha”.
Chief Wilson said she held off releasing the photos until she could share them with McClain’s family.
McClain’s case attracted renewed focus in the wake of the death of George Floyd, another unarmed African-American who died in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis.
–IANS
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