A prosecutor in the trial of Aurora police officer Nathan Woodyard over the 2019 death of Elijah McClain found himself questioning the credibility of one of his side’s own witnesses Wednesday, when he said the police department’s lead trainer backtracked on previous testimony about how officers are trained to respond when someone says they can’t breathe.

Sgt. Kevin Smyth, the Aurora Police Department’s training supervisor, stayed on the witness stand from the beginning of the day Wednesday until about 3:30 p.m. He said officers receive training both as new recruits and on an ongoing basis about what to do when medical emergencies arise.

Woodyard faces charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with McClain’s death. Woodyard was the first of three officers who approached McClain after a teen 911 caller said McClain, who was wearing a face mask and listening to music, seemed “sketchy” and was waving his arms as he walked home from a convenience store on the night of Aug. 24, 2019.

After a struggle, Woodyard put McClain in a neck hold known as a carotid hold, which can induce brief unconsciousness by restricting blood flow to a person’s brain. Prosecutors argue Woodyard broke from his training by not monitoring McClain’s vital signs after using the hold, and ignored his pleas that he couldn’t breathe and the fact that he began vomiting.

Smyth testified for several hours Wednesday about the department’s training on carotid holds, which he said officers receive more education about than any other single technique, and how to respond when someone they’re in contact with says they can’t breathe.

Although officers can’t make diagnoses, they’re expected to err on the side of calling for Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics if they believe there’s any chance a person is having a medical emergency, including respiratory distress. They’re also expected to tell paramedics any symptoms they’ve observed the person having they believe are relevant.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber jumped on Smyth for what he said was inconsistent testimony he gave a few weeks ago in officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt’s trial that a person saying even one time they can’t breathe could be a sign of respiratory failure.

“Is it correct to say that you’re training officers that even one complaint of somebody saying, ‘I can’t breathe’ is something that needs to be taken seriously and addressed?” Slothouber asked.

“We’re trained that it can. Not in all cases – it’s totality of circumstances – but a complaint can be an indicator that they need to call for help,” Smyth responded.

The exchange prompted Slothouber to read back testimony Smyth gave late in September about the same topic in the first two officers’ trial, in which Smyth painted the urgency of someone saying they can’t breathe as more definitive.

“According to your sworn testimony that we just read, even one complaint of somebody saying they can’t breathe, you train officers to treat as a real, honest complaint?”

“Yes,” Smyth said.

“You train officers that if they say that even one time, you want to both address that with first aid and update rescue, right?”

“Yes,” Smyth replied after about a five-second pause.

Smyth said a person struggling to catch their breath after they flee from officers but recover in a reasonable amount of time would be one example of a situation where officers probably wouldn’t be expected to call paramedics, because the circumstances led to an expected outcome.

On cross-examination, Woodyard’s defense attorney Andrew Ho emphasized Smyth’s testimony that officers are trained to evaluate all of a situation’s circumstances when deciding whether to call paramedics.

“What we’re talking about are not robots, but human beings, analyzing the situation. … Is that fair?” Ho asked.

“Yes,” Smyth said.

The tense hours of testimony came near the end of prosecutors’ list of witnesses in Woodyard’s trial. On Friday, they plan to call Roger Mitchell, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C. who testified in Roedema and Rosenblatt’s trial that he believes the struggle with officers contributed to McClain’s death. He said he would have characterized his death a homicide.

Prosecutors say Woodyard put his hands on McClain less than 10 seconds after getting out of his patrol car, without introducing himself or explaining why he wanted to talk to McClain. McClain, seemingly confused, tried to keep walking.

Woodyard told him he had the right to stop McClain because he was “being suspicious.”

Roedema said several times during the struggle he saw McClain try to grab former officer Jason Rosenblatt’s gun, body-worn camera footage shows. It appears Woodyard used the carotid hold shortly after Roedema first made that statement, though prosecutors refute the claim that McClain reached for a gun.

A paramedic called to the scene later injected McClain with a 500 milligram dose of ketamine, a sedative. He stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest shortly after, and was pronounced dead in a hospital three days later.

Woodyard’s defense attorneys argue he had to react quickly during the encounter, and that the carotid hold was actually his attempt to use non-lethal force to de-escalate the situation. They also say he stepped away from the immediate vicinity of the struggle for much of the encounter after he applied the carotid hold, and thus he was not involved in the decisions made during that time.

Woodyard’s defense attorneys seek to lay blame instead on Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics who are scheduled for trial next month, because of their decision to inject McClain with the sedative ketamine after a struggle with police. Paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec are scheduled for trial next month.