Homicide convictions reversed for Colorado paramedics who injected
ketamine into Elijah McClain
[June 05, 2026]
By MEAD GRUVER and MATTHEW BROWN
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado court reversed homicide
convictions against two paramedics on Thursday in the 2019 death of
Elijah McClain, a Black man who was pinned down by police and injected
with a fatal dose of ketamine.
McClain’s final words — “I can’t breathe” — foreshadowed those of George
Floyd a year later in Minneapolis, and the Colorado man’s name became
part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the U.S. in
2020.
The appeals court ordered new trials for Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics
Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec. McClain, 23, had been forcibly
restrained and put in a neck hold by police, who stopped him in response
to a suspicious person complaint as the massage therapist walked home
from a convenience store in the Denver suburb in 2019.
Criminal charges against paramedics and emergency medical technicians
involved in police custody cases are rare. As McClain’s death and others
raised questions about the use of ketamine to subdue struggling
suspects, this prosecution sent shock waves through the ranks of first
responders across the U.S.
New trials in the case will return the issue to the spotlight, and that
could make first responders think twice when responding to calls
involving people in police custody, said University of Miami
criminologist Alex Piquero.
“At 11 o'clock tonight when they're on a call, and the circumstances are
the same, is this going to influence their behavior?" Piquero asked. “It
may not be the first thing that comes into their heads, but it's going
to be there."
A jury in 2023 found Cooper and Cichuniec guilty of criminally negligent
homicide following a weekslong trial in state district court. The jurors
also found Cichuniec guilty of second-degree felony assault.
Cichuniec received five years in prison. Cooper avoided prison and was
sentenced to 14 months in jail with work release and probation.
State attorney general says he will appeal
The appeals court upheld Cichuniec's assault conviction, but faulted the
instructions given to jurors with respect to the criminally negligent
homicide charges before they deliberated. Thursday's ruling sends their
cases back to a lower court for a new trial on that charge.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser will appeal Thursday’s decision, a
spokesperson said.
“Bringing these cases to trial was the right thing to do for justice,
for Elijah McClain, and for healing in the Aurora community,” Weiser
said in a statement. “The attorney general’s office is committed to
defending these convictions through the appeals process.”
An Aurora police officer was convicted of homicide and third degree
assault in McClain’s death, while two other officers were acquitted.
Cichuniec was released early from prison in 2024 after a judge reduced
his sentence to four years of probation. That judge, Mark Warner, cited
“unusual and extenuating circumstances,” a part of Colorado’s mandatory
sentencing law that allows a court to modify a sentence after a
defendant has served least 119 days in prison. Warner said that
Cichuniec had to make a quick decision the night of the arrest as the
highest-ranking paramedic at the scene.
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A demonstrator carries an image of Elijah McClain during a rally and
march, June 27, 2020, in Aurora, Colo. Two paramedics were convicted
Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, in the 2019 killing of McClain, who they
injected with an overdose of the sedative ketamine after police put
him in a neck hold. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
The International Association of Fire Fighters said in a statement
it continued to support Cooper and Cichuniec, who are members of the
labor union.
“Today’s ruling recognizes the challenges paramedics face when
making split-second medical decisions in rapidly evolving
situations,” said Edward Kelly, the association’s general president.
Local prosecutors initially declined to bring charges in
McClain's death
Local prosecutors initially decided not to bring charges in
McClain’s death largely because an initial autopsy was inconclusive
on how how he died.
Following the nationwide protests over Floyd’s death, Democratic
Gov. Jared Polis directed Weiser to re-investigate the McClain case.
A grand jury indicted the two paramedics and three police officers
when Dr. Stephen Cina, a forensic pathologist who performed
McClain’s autopsy, changed his findings to pin the blame on the
sedative ketamine after reviewing body camera footage from the
scene.
The city of Aurora in 2021 agreed to pay $15 million to settle a
federal civil rights lawsuit brought by McClain’s parents.
The Associated Press left a voicemail seeking comment with the
attorney for McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain. Other requests for
comment were left with the paramedics' lawyers.
The paramedics’ defense attorneys argued they followed their
training in giving ketamine to McClain after deciding he had
“excited delirium,” a disputed condition invoked to justify
excessive force that some say is unscientific. They also said
prosecutors did not prove the sedative is what killed him.
Paramedics in Aurora had been trained to use the drug for the
condition in 2018. State officials have since told paramedics to
stop using excited delirium as a basis for administering ketamine.
An activist who befriended Sheneen McClain after they met at a
protest said the appellate ruling was disappointing and “one of the
most divisive judicial decisions our state has experienced in recent
memory.”
"It strikes at the heart of a question that Colorado continues to
struggle to answer: When a Black life is taken under circumstances
that shock the conscience of the public, what does accountability
truly mean?” said MiDian Shofner, CEO of the Epitome of Black
Excellence and Partnership.
___
Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Thomas Peipert contributed
reporting from Denver.
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