In opening statements in the joint trial of a current and a former police officer in Aurora, Colorado, defense attorneys said the two followed department protocol.

“Listen to Elijah’s words,” prosecutor Jonathan Bunge said as police body camera video was played. “When Elijah is on the ground handcuffed, he’s saying over and over and over again, ‘I can’t breathe. Please help me.’”

But instead of helping him, Bunge said, Aurora Police Officer Randy Roedema and his former colleague, Jason Rosenblatt, ignored McClain’s pleas for help and told arriving paramedics that he had been resisting and had “crazy strength.”

Then the paramedics gave McClain a sedative “as he was drifting closer and closer to death,” Bunge said in Adams County District Court.