United States – A Denver judge is scheduled tomorrow to hand down a sentence for a paramedic found guilty in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who died after he was put in a chokehold by officers and medics made him inject with a strong sedative.
Rare Conviction for Paramedic
In December, the jury convicted emergency medical worker Peter Cichuniec, 51, of criminally negligent homicide in one of the rare cases where a paramedic is charged with such between. He could be spending up to 16 years in prison.
Cichuniec’s accomplice, Jeremy Cooper, 49, also found to be a criminally negligent homicide and is scheduled for sentencing on the last of April, is the one to blame.
This, in fact, was the final attempt regarding stemming from the death of McClain, who had not stolen anything at the time he was being stopped.
It was the case of one police officer who was found guilty of homicide and imprisoned for 14 months. Two others were acquitted.
Police captured McClain in the side of town near Denver on the night of Aug. 24, 2019, after a man who happened to be a bystander called 911 to report he was dressed in a winter coat and a ski mask on a warm night and was doing somewhat oddly while walking home from a convenience store.
The cops hit the ground on McClain after shortly stopping him and choking him so much that even twice. Into his ski mask, he threw up and repeatedly said to police how hard it was for his breath.
Complex Background of the Case
The initial autopsy of McClain that was performed in 2019 recorded a cause of death as “Undetermined.” However, a newly revised autopsy report issued in 2021 stated that McClain had died due to “Complications from Ketamine administration following Forcible restraint.”
Local prosecutors at first would not charge the McClain case. It was then that the event that changed everything happened with the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a man who died as the result of Minneapolis police officers.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis had asked the state Attorney General’s Office to probe into McClain’s case, no sooner did Floyd’s death throw light on worldwide protests. A state grand jury indicted the officers and paramedics only last year.
Sheneen McClain, the mother of Lamonte McClain, has claimed that three out of five convictions are not justice and has asked Judge Mark Warner to impose the maximum sentences on all who were found guilty.