Peter Cichuniec, one of the paramedics involved in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, was convicted in December of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault for administering drugs without consent. On Friday, he was sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections for the second-degree assault conviction.
The incident involving Elijah McClain began when three Aurora officers contacted him on August 24, 2019, after receiving a call about a suspicious man wearing a ski mask. A struggle ensued, and McClain was forcibly taken to the ground and placed in a carotid hold, cutting off oxygen to his brain for a short time. He was then handcuffed and restrained on the ground before being injected with ketamine, which led to his heart stopping and subsequent death.
During the trial, it was revealed that neither Cooper nor Cichuniec assessed McClain before administering the ketamine. The paramedics believed McClain was suffering from excited delirium, a condition marked by severe agitation and imperviousness to pain. This led them to inject McClain with ketamine, using the largest dose allowed, which was meant for someone weighing roughly 80 pounds more than McClain.
Following McClain’s death and the subsequent questions raised about the incident, Colorado Governor Jared Polis appointed Attorney General Phil Weiser as a special prosecutor to reopen the investigation. This eventually led to a statewide grand jury returning indictments against five individuals, including the paramedics Cooper and Cichuniec.
In the first trial involving Aurora officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault. Rosenblatt was acquitted of all charges, and Officer Nathan Woodyard was also acquitted in a separate trial.
Cooper and Cichuniec were the last of the five individuals to go to trial, with Cichuniec ultimately being sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections for second-degree assault and one year for criminally negligent homicide, to be served concurrently. Upon release, he will be on parole for three years.
Overall, the case of Elijah McClain’s death has sparked national attention and calls for police and paramedic accountability in cases of excessive force and lack of proper assessment before administering medical treatments.