A Colorado paramedic was sentenced Friday to four years of probation for his role in the killing of Elijah McClain, ending years of efforts to prosecute those involved in the black pedestrian's death.
Jeremy Cooper, a former Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide on Dec. 22 and could have received up to three years in prison.
Friday's ruling was the final court case against the first responders accused of being involved in 23-year-old McClain's death.
- Paramedic Peter Cichniec, who was also convicted of manslaughter, was sentenced to five years in prison on March 1.
- On January 5, police officer Randy Rodema was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 months in prison.
- During the same trial in Roedema, police officer Jason Rosenblatt was acquitted of charges of reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault. Mr. Rosenblatt later resigned from the department after appearing in a photo that appeared to mock Mr. McClain's monument.
- Police officer Nathan Woodyard was acquitted last year of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Woodyard resigned from the department on January 12 after reaching an unpaid settlement.
On August 24, 2019, McClain was walking to his home when he was stopped by police in a Denver suburb.
McClain was strangled and paramedics administered 500 milligrams of ketamine to sedate him before he went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
He was taken off life support on August 30th.
Local prosecutors initially declined to prosecute the first responders. Governor Jared Polis appointed a special prosecutor in June 2020, amid national civil rights protests following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Then, on September 1, 2021, two years after McClain's death, state prosecutors announced that a grand jury had returned indictments against three police officers and two paramedics.
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