Elijah McClain’s mother calls ex-officer who killed her son ‘a bully with a badge’ at sentencing

By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado police officer convicted of the 2019 killing Elijah McClain faces a penalty ranging from probation to several years behind bars. A judge is expected to sentence former Aurora officer Randy Roedema on Friday. At the sentencing hearing, McClain’s mother called Roedema a “bully with a badge” after he expressed remorse for the death of McClain but stopped short of apologizing. Roedema was convicted in October of criminally negligent homicide, a felony, and third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, the least serious charges he faced. McClain’s death became a rallying cry in 2020 for critics of racial injustice in policing.