A jury on Friday found two Colorado paramedics guilty of criminally negligent homicide for their role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a black man who died after police detained him, put him in a choke hold and the medics injected him with a powerful sedative.
The trial of paramedics Jeremy Cooper, 49, and Peter Cichuniec, 51, was the last of three involving the death of McClain, 23, who was stopped by police after a bystander reported he looked suspicious. He was not alleged to have committed any crime.
In addition to finding both men guilty of criminally negligent homicide — punishable by up to three years in prison — the jury also found Cichuniec guilty of assault in the second degree for administering the sedative.
Photo: AP
Judge Mark Warner ordered that Cichuniec be taken into custody immediately, while Cooper remained free on bond pending a March 1 sentencing.
McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, wept outside the courthouse as a supporter of the McClain family, MiDian Holmes, spoke with reporters on her behalf.
“We do not know justice until we see sentencing,” Holmes said. “So Judge Warner you now have a responsibility. We are still seeking justice.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said much more work needs to be done to prevent the deaths of innocents at the hands of police and other first responders.
“Elijah did nothing wrong. His life mattered. He should be with us here today,” Weiser said.
The first trial ended with one police officer being found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and another acquitted. The second ended with a third officer being acquitted.
Cooper and Cichuniec both took the stand during their trial in Adams County District Court near Denver.
They told the jury they believed the sedative ketamine was required to calm Elijah McClain, and that police officers who were roughly detaining him interfered in their ability to quickly treat him.
However, prosecutors said throughout the trial that the paramedics contravened their training protocols by failing to examine Elijah McClain before injecting him with the maximum allowed dose of ketamine.
Prosecutors said the paramedics incorrectly decided that Elijah McClain was in a state of “excited delirium,” a condition said to consist of agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death.
Many medical experts, including the American Medical Association, say the condition does not exist and have opposed using the diagnosis for law enforcement purposes.
The paramedics injected him with 500mg of the sedative, wrongly estimating his weight to be 91kg, prosecutors said.
Elijah McClain weighed 65kg.
“These defendants didn’t even try. When Elijah McClain pleaded ‘Please help me,’ they left him there, they overdosed him on ketamine ... they killed him,” prosecutor Jason Slothouber said during closing arguments on Wednesday.
The defense rejected that, saying that, based on the training available in 2019, the paramedics acted appropriately.
Colorado’s Peace Officers Standards and Training board ruled on Dec. 1 that “excited delirium” could no longer be taught as a diagnosis to new officers in training.
A bill is pending before Colorado lawmakers that would ban excited delirium from all police and emergency medical service training, and would not allow coroners to list it as a cause of death.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS