Paramedic Avoids Prison in Death of Elijah McClain
A Colorado paramedic convicted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young, unarmed Black man, was sentenced to four years of probation with 14 months of work release on Friday, the final chapter of an explosive case that thrust the Denver suburb of Aurora into the national spotlight and helped usher in sweeping public safety reforms.
Jeremy Cooper, 49, a former paramedic with Aurora Fire Rescue, was found guilty in December of criminally negligent homicide. A second paramedic, Peter Cichuniec, 51, a former lieutenant with the department, was sentenced last month to five years in prison.
Judge Mark Douglas Warner of the District Court in the 17th Judicial District said neither the jury nor the court saw evidence that Mr. Cooper purposely gave Mr. McClain an overdose though his actions deviated from the standard of care. “It’s almost unthinkable the way things rolled out,” he said, later adding, “It didn’t have to happen.”
In a rare criminal prosecution of emergency personnel, the convictions called into question the role that paramedics play in police encounters. Mr. Cooper, Mr. Cichuniec and three police officers were prosecuted in the district court in three back-to-back trials last year. Randy Roedema, a former Aurora police officer, was sentenced to 14 months in a county jail.
During the encounter, Mr. Cooper injected Mr. McClain with ketamine, a powerful sedative, while he was in police custody — and after officers had forcefully subdued him and placed him in a neck restraint. Mr. McClain went into cardiac arrest and died in a hospital days later.