BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) Two Denver-area paramedics were convicted Friday for giving a fatal overdose of the sedative ketamine to Elijah McClain in 2019 a jury verdict that experts said could have a chilling effect on first responders around the country.
Allies of the defendants said authorities had criminalized split-second medical decisions but prosecutors and a jury believe that injecting McClain with ketamine was done recklessly.
Two Colorado paramedics were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide by a jury on Friday for their role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who died after police roughly detained him, put him in a chokehold, and the medics injected him with a powerful sedative.
Two Denver-area paramedics have been convicted in the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, who they injected with an overdose of the sedative ketamine after police put him in a neck hold. The jury on Friday found Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec guilty of criminally negligent homicide. The case is notable as it’s the first of several recent criminal prosecutions against medical first responders to reach trial. The death of the 23-year-old Black man received little attention until protests over the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis made McClain’s name a rallying cry.