By Mead Gruver and Matthew Brown, Associated Press | A Colorado court reversed homicide convictions against two paramedics on Thursday in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was pinned down by police and injected with a fatal dose of ketamine.
McClain’s final words — “I can’t breathe” — foreshadowed those of George Floyd a year later in Minneapolis, and the Colorado man’s name became part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the U.S. in 2020.
The appeals court ordered new trials for Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec. McClain, 23, had been forcibly restrained and put in a neck hold by police, who stopped him in response to a suspicious person complaint as the massage therapist [and musician] walked home from a convenience store in the Denver suburb in 2019.
Criminal charges against paramedics and emergency medical technicians involved in police custody cases are rare. As McClain’s death and others raised questions about the use of ketamine to subdue struggling suspects, this prosecution sent shock waves through the ranks of first responders across the U.S.
New trials in the case will return the issue to the spotlight, and that could make first responders think twice when responding to calls involving people in police custody, said University of Miami criminologist Alex Piquero.
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Cichuniec received five years in prison. Cooper avoided prison and was sentenced to 14 months in jail with work release and probation.
State attorney general says he will appeal
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Local prosecutors initially declined to bring charges in McClain’s death
Local prosecutors initially decided not to bring charges in McClain’s death largely because an initial autopsy was inconclusive on how how he died.
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Read this full story here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/us–elijah-mcclain-paramedics-195137573.html
Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Thomas Peipert contributed reporting from Denver.
[Barb’s personal opinion: This disgusts me. Elijah was doing no wrong. He was a musician – who was probably “air” violin playing or maybe even “air” conducting. That would explain him waving his hands. This would make me a target for “air” drumming or YOU for “air” guitaring! The police should have stayed in their car and watched him for a few moments before coming to the conclusion that he was harmless. The idea that the amount of ketamine injected was for a much larger person is reprehensible. Nothing can bring Elijah back but this kind of “law enforcement” behavior needs to be corrected for possible future cases. ~ Barb | P.S. Comments at the end of the article pretty much say the same. Elijah was wronged and reversing the court’s and jury’s decisions will not bring justice for him and his family.]
