Two Colorado paramedics were convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young unarmed Black man whose case drew national attention and forced public safety reforms in the city where he lived and died.
A mostly white jury found the paramedics, Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper, guilty of a more serious charge they faced. But the jury split on two lesser assault charges: They cleared Mr. Cooper of both assault charges, but convicted Mr. Cichuniec of one of those charges, second-degree assault for the unlawful administration of drugs.
The men had injected Mr. McClain with the powerful sedative ketamine while he was in police custody in Aurora, Colo., which doctors said left him near death. He died days later in the hospital.
The trial was a rare prosecution of paramedics, and raised the question of the role that medical personnel play in police encounters and whether they could be held criminally responsible for their actions.
I follow some YouTube police bodycam channels and have noticed that Colorado cops are completely out of control. In one video they instantly paralyzed a man whose only crime was walking around intoxicated. They threw him out of their car while handcuffed right onto his head and then dragged him through the parking lot by his arms while yelling at him to quit being a bitch and walk. Then they physically threw him onto a gurney at the hospital and fucking left him there alone without telling doctors or nurses anything about him. https://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/19/donovan-duran-la-junta-lawsuit-settlement/