Left: FILE PHOTO: Paramedics Jeremy Cooper (center) and Peter Cichuniec exit the Adams County District Court as a jury deliberates their case. They are accused in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, an unarmed Black man who died in police custody after being subdued and injected with a sedative, in Brighton, Colorado, Dec. 22, 2023. Photo by Kevin Mohatt/Reuters.
April 26, 2024 Story by: Editor
BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — Jeremy Cooper, the former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a powerful sedative, was sentenced to 14 months in jail with work release and probation on Friday, avoiding prison in the high-profile case that contributed to the 2020 racial injustice protests.
Cooper faced up to three years in prison after being found guilty of criminally negligent homicide last year. He administered a dose of ketamine to McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, who had been forcibly restrained by police while walking home in a Denver suburb in 2019.
This sentencing concludes a series of trials spanning seven months, resulting in convictions for a police officer and two paramedics. Charges against paramedics and emergency medical technicians in police custody deaths are rare.
Cooper, who was dismissed from his position after his conviction, received a sentence of four years probation, including 14 months in jail with work release, according to Lawrence Pacheco of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
The other paramedic involved in McClain’s death received a harsher sentence after being convicted of an additional felony assault charge.
Judge Mark Warner stated that evidence showed Cooper did not intentionally overdose McClain on ketamine, rejecting prosecutors’ claims of indifference.
McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, expressed her blame on everyone present that night, not just those convicted. “Eternal shame on all of you,” she told the court.
She criticized Cooper for not checking her son’s pulse or breathing before injecting him with ketamine. “From my heart to my hands, long live Elijah McClain, always and forever,” she concluded, raising her right fist.
Later, Sheneen McClain told reporters she had low expectations from the trials and was not surprised Cooper avoided prison time. “We won, Elijah won,” she said.
Experts suggest such convictions were unlikely before 2020, when George Floyd’s murder sparked a nationwide reckoning over racist policing and deaths in police custody.
Between 2012 and 2021, at least 94 people died after being sedated and restrained by police, according to The Associated Press, FRONTLINE (PBS), and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism.
Elijah McClain’s name became a symbol in the protests over racial injustice in policing that swept across the U.S. in 2020.
“Without the reckoning over criminal justice and the higher rates of police violence against people of color, it’s very unlikely that there would have been any charges, let alone convictions,” said David Harris, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and racial profiling expert.
Harris noted that juries are often hesitant to second-guess the actions of police and other first responders.
“It’s still very hard to convict,” he added.
