Colorado paramedics are found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in death of unarmed black man Elijah McClain, 23, who they injected with an overdose of ketamine after cops put him in a headlock during suspicious person complaint
Two Denver-area paramedics were convicted Friday of the 2019 murder of Elijah McClain, whom they injected with an overdose of the drug. sedative ketamine after police put him in a necklock.
It was the latest trial of police and paramedics charged in the death of McClain, a 23-year-old Black man whose case received little attention until the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
There was an Aurora police officer convicted of murder and third-degree assault earlier this year, while two officers were acquitted.
The trial against the paramedics explored largely uncharted legal territory because it is the first case against medical first responders to face criminal charges and may set the bar for prosecutors in future cases.
Elijah McClain, 23, was killed on August 24, 2019 while walking home in Aurora, Colorado
Elijah McClain was walking down the street when Colorado police stopped him and put him in the hold and the ambulance gave him medicine to calm him down. He was taken to hospital and died in August 2019
Police and paramedics attempt to subdue McClain on the night of August 24, 2019
Paramedics Jeremy Cooper, far left, and Peter Cichuniec, far right, enter the Adams County courthouse Friday
The jury has found Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec guilty of negligent homicide after a weeks-long trial in district court.
The jury also found Cichuniec guilty of one of two counts of second-degree assault.
Cooper was found not guilty of the assault charges.
If convicted, they could face years in prison.
McClain's mother, Sheneen, raised her fist in the air as she left the courtroom. Sitting in the front row, Copper's wife cried as officers prepared to handcuff him.
The verdict was announced after two days of deliberation.
When jurors told the judge Friday afternoon that they were deadlocked on one of the charges, the judge told them to keep trying to reach a verdict.
Police stopped McClain as he walked home from a supermarket on August 24, 2019, after a suspicious person complaint.
After an officer said McClain reached for an officer's gun — a claim disputed by prosecutors — another officer put him in a neck hold that temporarily knocked him unconscious.
Officers also detained McClain before Cooper injected him with an overdose of ketamine.
Cichuniec was the senior officer and said it was his decision to use ketamine.
Jeremy Cooper is seen arriving at the courthouse in Brighton, Colorado on Friday
Peter Cichuniec, front right, was the top officer on the night of August 24, 2019 and made the fatal decision to use ketamine on McClain
Prosecutors said the paramedics did not perform basic medical checks on McClain, such as taking his pulse, before giving him the ketamine.
The dose was too high for someone his size – 140 pounds, experts testified.
Prosecutors say they also did not immediately monitor McClain after giving him the sedative, but instead left him on the ground, making it harder to breathe.
McClains pleading words captured on police body camera footage – “I'm an introvert and I'm different” – struck a chord with protesters and people across the country.
In a statement released ahead of the sentencing, McClain's mother said everyone present during her son's police stop showed a lack of humanity.
“They cannot blame their professional training for their indifference to evil or their participation in an evil action,” McClain wrote.
'That is entirely up to them. May all their souls rot in hell when their time comes.”
A protester carries an image of Elijah McClain during a rally and march in the summer of 2020
A makeshift memorial stands at a spot across the street from where Elijah McClain was stopped
Defense attorneys argued that the paramedics then followed their training in giving McClain ketamine diagnose him of ' excited delirium', a controversial term that some say is unscientific and has been used to justify excessive force.
The verdicts came after a jury in Washington state three police officers evacuated of all criminal charges on Thursday in connection with the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was shocked, beaten and restrained face down on a Tacoma sidewalk as he begged for breath.
In the Colorado case, the prosecutor said Cooper lied to investigators to cover up his actions, telling investigators that McClain actively resisted when he decided to inject McClain with ketamine, even though the body camera showed McClain unconscious in the lay on the ground.
It also disputed Cooper's claim that McClain tried to escape from police who were holding him — and that he took McClain's pulse as he bent down to give him the injection of ketamine, which others testified they did not see.
“He is attempting to cover up the recklessness of his conduct,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber told jurors in a closing statement.
Cichuniec, who testified alongside Cooper this week, said paramedics were trained to work quickly to treat excited delirium with ketamine and were repeatedly told it was a safe, effective drug and were not warned about the possibility of it. kill someone.
Colorado is now telling paramedics not to give ketamine to people suspected of having the controversial condition known as ketamine excited deliriumwhich has symptoms such as increased strength and has been linked to racial prejudice against black men.
“We were taught that this is a safe drug and that it will not kill them,” he testified.
Local authorities decided not to pursue criminal charges in 2019 because the coroner's office could not determine exactly how McClain, a massage therapist, died.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered Attorney General Phil Weiser's office to review the case in 2020 and a grand jury indicted the officers and paramedics in 2021.
The killings of McClain, Floyd and others sparked a wave of legislation in more than two dozen states imposing restrictions on the use of neck holds.
When police stopped McClain, he was listening to music and wearing a mask that covered most of his face because he had a circulatory disorder.
The police stop quickly turned physical after McClain, seemingly taken aback, asked to be left alone. He was not accused of committing any crime.
The officers told investigators that they took McClain down after hearing Officer Randy Roedema say, “He took your gun, dude.”
Roedema later said Officer Jason Rosenblatt's gun was the target.
Aurora Officer Randy Roedema (pictured) was convicted of negligent homicide for the 2019 death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain
Former officer Jason Rosenblatt (pictured left) was acquitted of all charges by the Colorado jury
Jason Rosenblatt had only been on the force for two years when McClain died. He was fired in 2020 for making light of the situation by doing a reenactment with other neck grab officers (photo)
Prosecutors countered that McClain ever tried to grab an officer's gun and that it doesn't show up on body camera footage.
Paramedic injected McClain with ketamine while Roedema – and another officer, who was not charged – held him on the ground.
McClain went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and died three days later.
Roedema was convicted earlier this month of the least serious charge in a series of charges he could have faced, which could carry a sentence of probation to prison.
Rosenblatt and Officer Nathan Woodyard were acquitted of all charges.
In the initial trials of the police officers, the defense tried to shift the blame for McClain's death to the paramedics.
The city of Aurora agreed in 2021 to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by McClain's parents.