Millions of people have called for Colorado officials to reopen the investigation into the death of Elijah McClain back in August 2019 after he was stopped by Aurora cops who used a carotid hold on him, more commonly known as the chokehold. A Change.org petition calls on Adams County District Attorney Dave Young, Mayor Mike Coffman and the Aurora Police Department to carry out a “more in-depth investigation” and remove the officers involved from the force.

According to the The Gazette, McClain was on his way home from a gas station where he bought four cans of Brisk tea on August 24, 2019 when he encountered officers. They stopped him after receiving calls of a “suspicious man.”

Soon, the situation escalated and they put McClain, a Denver native and massage therapist in Aurora, in a chokehold and forced him to the ground for 15 minutes. He eventually started vomiting and complaining that he couldn’t breathe.

“There was a physical struggle,” former APD Chief Nick Metz said back in October. “When (police) saw (McClain), they told him to stop. He wouldn’t stop. Again, he was wearing a ski mask, it’s 10:30 p.m. at night in a residential area, so obviously that creates some concern.”

However, according to Elijah’s family, he was anemic and he favored wearing a ski mask to keep his face warm while he was walking.

According to the body camera footage, that officer then puts his hands on McClain, saying "stop tensing up," while McClain replies, "let go of me." The two other officers then appear to put their hands on him at this point too, the video shows.

McClain tells the officers he was "going home."

"You guys started to arrest me and I was stopping my music to listen," McClain said, according to the body camera video. One officer says he wants to move McClain over to a grassy area, which is when McClain appeared to struggle with the officers.

During the struggle, one officer shouts that McClain had tried to reach for another officer's gun, according to the body camera footage.

The officer whose gun McClain allegedly reached for later can be heard in the body camera footage that he did not remember feeling McClain go for his gun.

The officers bring him to the ground and place him in a carotid control hold -- which involves an officer placing his arm around a person's neck, restricting the flow of blood to the brain from the carotid arteries, according to a letter from Dave Young, the district attorney for Adams and Broomfield Counties, to then-Police Chief Nicholas Metz.