Paramedic gets 5 years in prison for Elijah McClain’s killing in rare case against medical responders

By Colleen Slevin and Matthew Brown, Associated Press

BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado paramedic was sentenced Friday to five years in prison in a rare prosecution of medical responders following the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man whose name became part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the U.S. in 2020.

McClain was walking down the street in a Denver suburb in 2019 when police responding to a suspicious person report forcibly restrained him and put him in a neck hold. His final words — “I can’t breathe” — foreshadowed those of George Floyd a year later in Minneapolis.

Peter Cichuniec and a fellow paramedic were convicted in December of criminally negligent homicide for injecting McClain with ketamine, a powerful sedative ultimately blamed for killing the 23-year-old massage therapist. Cichuniec also was convicted on a more serious charge of second-degree assault for giving a drug without consent or a legitimate medical purpose.

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McClain’s mother, Sheneen, raised her fist in the air as she left the courtroom following Friday’s sentencing, as she has done after previous hearings.

Learn what McClain said to the paramedics at the trial.

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