A Colorado paramedic was given a sentence on Friday for Elijah McClain’s 2019 Aurora, Colorado, death.
Peter Cichuniec, a former paramedic with Aurora Fire Rescue, was sentenced to three years of probation and five years in prison by Adams County District Judge Mark Warner.
Cichuniec was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault in December 2023. The co-defendant, Jeremy Cooper, was also convicted of criminally negligent homicide and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 26.
Cichuniec could have received up to 16 years in prison.
When McClain was on his way home from a convenience shop, cops approached him after someone reported seeing something “sketchy” nearby to the 911 operator. At the time, McClain had on a ski mask and was unarmed.
McClain was told he had the right to be stopped by cops when they got on the scene because he was “being suspicious.”
McClain is heard telling officers on body camera footage that he was going home and “I have a right to go where I am going.”
In addition to forcing McClain to the grass and placing him in a carotid hold, Officer Nathan Woodyard and the other two responding police also restrained McClain.
Investigators said that after EMTs arrived on the scene, McClain suffered a heart attack in the ambulance after receiving a 500-milligram ketamine shot, a tranquilizer that “induces loss of consciousness.”
The amended autopsy states that Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died during a conflict with police officers, died as a result of ketamine injection administered by paramedics after he was physically restrained. The updated autopsy report was made public.
“I believe this tragic fatality is most likely the result of ketamine toxicity,” the report said, adding McClain received a higher dosage of the sedative than he should have. “Simply put, this dosage of ketamine was too much for this individual and it resulted in an overdose.”
The first autopsy report stated, “The cause of death could not be determined.”
At the sentencing, McClain’s mother Sheneen McClain, remarked, “You are no longer a local hero,” while Cichuniec sat at a neighboring table with his counsel. “The next time, follow your own judgment instead of that of a group of cowards.”
The other paramedics could have stepped in “just by saying, ‘Stop hurting my patient,'” Sheneen continued.
As she has done after hearings, McClain pumped her fist as she exited the courtroom on Friday after sentencing.
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