Elijah McClain - Global pulse News
  • Paramedic sentenced to 4 years of probation for role in Elijah McClain’s death

    Paramedic sentenced to 4 years of probation for role in Elijah McClain’s death

    A Colorado paramedic was sentenced to four years of probation Friday for his role in the killing of Elijah McClain, bringing a close to the yearslong effort to prosecute those involved in the Black pedestrian’s death.

    Jeremy Cooper, a one-time Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic, had faced up to three years in prison following his conviction on Dec. 22 for criminally negligent homicide.

    Cooper’s sentence, imposed by District Judge Mark Warner, also included 14 months’ work release and 100 hours of community service.

    Before issuing the term, Warner said body camera videos of McClain’s deadly interaction with police were “painful to watch.”

    The judge said that while Cooper injected McClain, 23, with more Ketamine than protocol for a person his size, the paramedic has shown he’s “contrite,” dedicated his life to helping others and was not likely to commit crimes in the future.

    Former Aurora Fire Department paramedic Jeremy Cooper enters the Adams County Justice Center on Dec. 22, 2023, in Brighton, Colo.  (David Zalubowski / AP file)

    Former Aurora Fire Department paramedic Jeremy Cooper enters the Adams County Justice Center on Dec. 22, 2023, in Brighton, Colo. (David Zalubowski / AP file)

    Before he was sentenced, Cooper said he wanted to address McClain, and at times, cried, while speaking about how he wished McClain were alive.

    “I want you to know that I would give anything to have a different outcome, Elijah. I never meant for anyone to hurt you,” Cooper said. “I wanted to take over your care, and I was scared. I believe you needed immediate medical attention. I wanted to calm the situation down. I wanted my presence to be enough and my skills and training to be enough. I am so sorry, collectively, that we all failed you.”

    McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, addressed the court before sentencing. She said Cooper will be forever judged by what he failed to do for her son.

    Elijah McClain. (Courtesy Mari Newman)Elijah McClain. (Courtesy Mari Newman)

    Elijah McClain. (Courtesy Mari Newman)

    “Jeremy Cooper did not check for my son’s pulse. Jeremy Cooper did not conduct a thorough examination to see if my son was breathing normally. Jeremy Cooper did not interact with my son or ask my son how he was doing,” she said.

    “Jeremy Cooper heard my son talking and was there for my son’s last words. But Jeremy Cooper just stood there … Nothing Jeremy Cooper can say will bring back my son or remove my son’s blood from his hands.”

    Friday’s sentencing was the final trial court action against first responders who were accused of playing a role in McClain’s death.

    McClain was walking home on Aug. 24, 2019, when police in the Denver suburb stopped him.

    McClain was put in a chokehold and paramedics administered 500 milligrams of ketamine to sedate him before he went into cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital.

    He was taken off life support on Aug. 30.

    Local prosecutors initially declined to charge first responders. Gov. Jared Polis assigned a special prosecutor in June 2020, in the midst of national civil rights protests following the police slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

    Then on Sept. 1, 2021, two years after McClain died, state prosecutors announced that a grand jury had returned indictments against three police officers and two paramedics.

    This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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  • Colorado paramedic to be sentenced in Elijah McClain’s death, bringing case to a close

    Colorado paramedic to be sentenced in Elijah McClain’s death, bringing case to a close

    By Brad Brooks

    BRIGHTON, Colorado (Reuters) – A Colorado judge on Friday is expected to sentence a paramedic convicted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, the last defendant to face jail time for the young Black man’s death.

    McClain, 23, died after police slammed him to the ground soon after stopping him and put him in a chokehold at least twice. Paramedics injected him with an excessive dose of ketamine, an anesthetic used for sedation, after police said he was in a state of “excited delirium.” McClain was not suspected of any wrongdoing when he was walking on the street and police stopped him.

    The sentencing of Jeremy Cooper, 49, who faces up to three years in prison for his conviction last December of criminally negligent homicide, closes out the three trials around McClain’s death. One police officer was sentenced to 14 months in prison, two officers were found not guilty, and Cooper’s fellow paramedic was sentenced to five years. Paramedics rarely face charges in such cases.

    Colorado has undergone significant police reforms since the killing of McClain and the following year’s racial justice protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Politicians and experts say even more must be done.

    “It should not be the way that we have to make policy, to do so based on someone being murdered, like Elijah McClain,” said Colorado state Representative Leslie Herod.

    “But when Elijah McClain was murdered, we were able to make a lot of progress in a lot of areas that people wanted to ignore or say did not happen here in Colorado,” the Democrat said.

    Herod said one of the most impactful measures of a sweeping 2020 police reform bill she co-sponsored spelled out that officers have a duty to intervene if they see a colleague committing civil rights violations.

    Herod said she is now focusing on providing whistleblower protections for police officers, and said new laws are needed to ensure, for example, that independent bodies investigate allegations against police.

    Among other Colorado laws and measures taken since McClain’s death that even more directly stem from the details of his case:

    – The banning of chokeholds;

    – Prohibitions on police officers pushing paramedics to use the ketamine on a suspect;

    – Banning police trainers from instructing on “excited delirium,” which some experts say is a racially charged pseudo-diagnosis.

    ‘BATTLEGROUND’ FOR REFORM

    David Pyrooz, a University of Colorado criminologist, said Colorado had some of the largest racial justice protests in 2020 outside of those in Minneapolis, and that the public pressure helped turn the state “into a battleground for police reform.”

    While that is positive, he said, Pyrooz cautioned that more scrutiny and regulation is going to lead some people to think twice about pursuing police careers.

    Alexander Landau, co-director of the Denver Justice Project, a community group pushing for police reforms, said McClain’s case also puts a focus on district attorneys – the elected officials who decide if charges are even brought.

    In McClain’s case, the local district attorney declined to press any charges, which were only brought after the state attorney general’s office stepped in.

    “Influencing broader community members to pay attention to those district attorney races, and who the candidates are, is very important to helping shift the violent and racist practices in any law enforcement department,” Landau said.

    (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Brighton, Colorado; editing by Donna Bryson and Aurora Ellis)

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