Photo: Rich Fury / Getty Images Entertainment / Getty Images
Seven years after Elijah McClain's death, the two paramedics convicted in his killing are headed back to court — this time for a new trial.
On Thursday (June 4), the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the criminally negligent homicide convictions of two former Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics — Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper — who were found guilty in 2023 for their role in the 2019 death of McClain, a 23-year-old Black massage therapist who was pinned down by police and injected with a fatal dose of ketamine while walking home from a convenience store.
According to CPJ, the appeals court ruled that jurors in the 2023 trial were not properly instructed on the legal standard for criminal negligence — and that the error was significant enough to require the homicide convictions to be vacated and the cases sent back to trial court for new trials.
The court did, however, uphold Cichuniec's separate second-degree felony assault conviction.
The night of McClain's death tells a damning story. Police had stopped McClain in response to a suspicious person complaint, forcibly restrained him, and put him in a neck hold. When the paramedics arrived, officers told them McClain was exhibiting "super-human" strength and was "on something." Without properly assessing his condition — including taking his pulse or attempting to speak with him — the medics concluded he was experiencing "excited delirium," a diagnosis that has since been widely discredited.
They administered 500 mg of ketamine, a dose far exceeding what was appropriate for a man of his size and weight. McClain lost consciousness and died days later in the hospital.
McClain's final words — "I can't breathe" — foreshadowed those of George Floyd a year later in Minneapolis. His name became a rallying cry during the nationwide social justice uprising of 2020.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who served as special prosecutor after the local district attorney declined to bring charges, was unequivocal in his response.
"A jury convicted two paramedics for the death of Elijah McClain, an innocent Black man who did nothing wrong that tragic night seven years ago," he said in a statement. "Justice demands it." His office announced it would appeal Thursday's ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court.
Both paramedics are currently free — Cooper served 14 months in a work-release program followed by probation, while Cichuniec was released early from prison in 2024 after a judge reduced his sentence to four years of probation.
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