Paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with ketamine sentenced to 5 years

The paramedic who injected Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man walking home from an Aurora, Colorado store in 2019, with a fatal overdose of ketamine was sentenced to 5 years in jail in Colorado on Friday.

Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were both found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in McClain's death, and Cichuniec was also convicted of second-degree assault for administering ketamine without consent, which carries the five-year sentence.

Besides the longer sentence, Cichuniec was also sentenced concurrently to one year for the homicide charge. He will have three years of probation after his release.

The paramedics administered the ketamine after police restrained McClain, whom they say resisted arrest and grabbed for one of the officers' guns. He died three days later in the hospital.

Both paramedics were terminated after it was discovered that they injected McClain with ketamine and caused his death. Expert testimony at trial said that the paramedics did not act according to protocol when they injected him.

“Emergency medical professionals serve honorably every day and save lives. In this case, Mr. Cichuniec disregarded his training and ordered Elijah McClain to receive a deadly dose of a powerful sedative while he was restrained and motionless on the ground, which killed him. A jury found the defendant guilty of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement after the sentencing.