Elijah McClain would be alive if it weren’t for ketamine

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Elijah McClain died because paramedics gave him too much ketamine; at least 17 people were killed in a school shooting in Russia.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

An excessive dose of ketamine killed Elijah McClain

 Rich Fury/Getty Images

• An amended autopsy report revealed Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man whose death in police custody helped spur 2020’s civil rights protests, died because paramedics gave him an excessive dose of ketamine. [Washington Post / Derek Hawkins]
• Police in Aurora, Colorado, stopped McClain, a massage therapist, in 2019 while responding to reports of a suspicious person. He was unarmed. [CNN / Steve Almasy]
• Police placed McClain in a chokehold after they said he reached for a gun. Emergency responders injected McClain with ketamine to sedate him. McClain went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance, and died several days later. [NBC News / Deon J. Hampton and Erik Ortiz]
• Though some pathologists argue ketamine may have only been a complicating factor in McClain’s death, all the experts the AP interviewed said it could have been called a homicide. [Associated Press / Colleen Slevin]
• In 2021, a Colorado grand jury indicted three officers and two paramedics on dozens of charges, including manslaughter and reckless homicide, over McClain’s death. Their arraignment is in November. [BuzzFeed News / Anna Betts]

📍 Go deeper

Read one thing: Vox explains how protesters urged Colorado’s governor to reopen the investigation into Elijah McClain’s death. [Vox / Aaron Ross Coleman]

A gunman kills at least 17 in a Russian school

• A 34-year-old gunman wearing a T-shirt with Nazi symbols opened fire at a school in central Russia Monday, killing at least 17 people and wounding 24 others before turning the weapon on himself. [AP]
• According to local media, the suspect shot a school security guard before entering School No. 88 in Izhevsk and continuing to fire. At least 11 children and two teachers were killed. [Washington Post / Robyn Dixon]
• Russia has toughened gun laws in response to recent school shootings; however, the suspect used a pistol illegally purchased on the black market in Monday’s attack. [BBC / Merlyn Thomas]
• Meanwhile, Monday, Russian authorities detained a gunman following an attack at a draft office in Siberia. Since President Vladimir Putin decided to activate military reservists to fight in Ukraine, several offices have been attacked. [Reuters / Felix Light]

Giorgia Meloni will become Italy’s first woman leader and latest far-right prime minister after her party won about 26 percent of the vote in snap elections. [Vox / Ellen Ioanes]

• On Monday evening, a NASA spacecraft will collide with an asteroid in a test of techniques to address future threats to the planet. [NYT / Kenneth Chang]
• In a historic referendum, Cuba voted to legalize same-sex marriage and adoptions for gay couples. [BBC]
• The British pound sank to an all-time low against the US dollar Monday after the UK government unveiled a plan to boost growth by slashing taxes. [Washington Post / Karla Adam]

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“I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine.”

[Forensic pathologist Stephen Cina / Washington Post]

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