A jury this Friday found the two white paramedics who injected the young African-American Elijah McClain with an overdose of ketamine guilty of negligent homicide in 2019 after being detained by the police in the city of Aurora (Colorado, USA).
The young man, 23 years old, was arrested on the street by three white police officers and violently placed on the ground. Later, the two paramedics arrived and gave him a powerful sedative to calm him down and he lost his life three days later in a hospital.
The case sparked protests against racism in Colorado and led to police reform in this Denver suburb.
Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper have been found guilty in the death of McClain, whose autopsy determined that he died of a ketamine overdose following forcible restraint.
Cichuniec, who was also found guilty of an assault charge, was remanded in custody by the judge, while Cooper will remain free on bail. The judge must determine the sentence that both will have to serve.
During the trial, the prosecution accused both paramedics of having been negligent in the protocols for administering sedatives when they injected the victim with ketamine to calm him down from a nervous breakdown.
Defense attorneys argued that their clients complied with protocols but police did not tell them that McClain had previously been strangled.
McClain was walking home from a store with a bag of cans of iced tea when he was stopped by the three police officers after receiving a call about the presence of a suspect.
According to the recordings, the young man was held by the arms, placed against a wall and then placed on the ground using a control technique known as “carotid restraint,” which blocks the flow of blood to the brain and can cause a brief period of unconsciousness.
Then the paramedics arrived and injected ketamine into the young man, who was already handcuffed. The prosecution said they did not check his vital signs or monitor McClain properly after administering the drug.
The young man was taken unconscious to a hospital, where life support was removed and he died on August 30, 2019.
Police officers Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt also went on trial in this case, but only Roedema was convicted of murder, while the other two officers were acquitted.
In 2020, two Aurora police officers were fired for sending Rosenblatt a photograph sarcastically recreating the chokehold at the scene where McClain was arrested.
