Former paramedic Jeremy Cooper, who injected Elijah McClain with ketamine before his death, wipes his eyes as he speaks in court during his sentencing, Friday, April 26, 2024, in Brighton, Colo. Cooper was convicted last year of criminally negligent homicide in the Black man’s death, which helped fuel the 2020 social justice protests. (ABC News One/Pool via AP; McClain’s photo Law&Crime file)
An ex-Colorado paramedic received probation after his conviction for criminally negligent homicide for injecting a heavy dose of ketamine into an unarmed Black man during a police stop in 2019.
Jeremy Cooper was sentenced to 14 months in jail with work release and probation in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, 23, days after a confrontation with police responding to a 911 call of someone wearing a ski mask and “acting strangely.” Cooper had faced three years in prison. Judge Mark Warner noted that evidence showed Cooper did not purposely give McClain a ketamine overdose, rejecting prosecutors’ arguments that he had acted with indifference, The Associated Press reported.
“Eternal shame on all of you,” said McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain, before the sentencing, blaming everyone present during the fatal encounter with her son, the AP reported. “From my heart to my hands, long live Elijah McClain, always and forever.”
In a statement, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the sentencing marks the end of a very long chapter after the Governor issued an executive order appointing him as a special prosecutor to investigate McClain’s death.
“With this sentence, we now have accountability for another defendant who failed to act the way the law requires, and we have a measure of justice for Elijah McClain, his family, and loved ones,” he said. “True justice, however, would be having Elijah alive today. His death was an unnecessary tragedy.
“There were many things that the officers and paramedics could have done the night of August 24, 2019, to prevent this deadly encounter. We recognize important work around integrity in law enforcement and improving first responders remains to be done, and Elijah McClain’s memory will continue to inspire us to do that work.”
Cooper apologized in court, the AP reported.
“I want you to know that I would give anything to have a different outcome, Elijah,” Cooper said, the AP reported. “I never, ever meant for anyone to hurt you.”
Prosecutors said he was “singularly most responsible” for McClain’s death, giving him a “massive overdose” of ketamine, a sedative, as his attorney, wife and firefighters called on the judge to be lenient, pointing to his record of saving lives and trying to as a paramedic.
Colorado Officer Randy Roedema was sentenced to 14 months in jail after he was found guilty in October of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault.
“Randy Roedema stole my son’s life,” McClain’s mother said then, The Associated Press reported. “All the belated apologies in the world can’t remove my son’s blood from Randy Roedema’s hands.”
Roedema addressed the family, the wire service reported.
“I want the McClain family to know the sadness I feel about Elijah being gone. He was young,” Roedema said. “We all responded to that incident in a way that we were all trained to do. Needless to say, the situation had a horrible outcome that nobody intended or wanted to happen.”
Two officers, Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard, were acquitted.
Peter Cichuniec was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault and was sentenced last month to five years to five years in state prison.
Weiser said in a statement then that Cichuniec disregarded his training and ordered Elijah McClain to receive a deadly dose of a powerful sedative as he was restrained and motionless on the ground.
Cichuniec said he was remorseful, Denver’s NBC affiliate KUSA reported.
“I’m very sorry Elijah McClain is no longer with us. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart,” he said. “Ms. McClain tragically lost a son. And we also lost a patient, and I don’t take that lightly. I always want to know what happened. What could have been done different? Or simply, why did they die? I was never able to convey that message during my testimony that’s why as a lifesaver with a servant’s heart it sickens me that the protection had enough nerve to say in their closing arguments I showed no remorse for Elijah or this call.”
McClain’s death helped spark the racial injustice protests in 2020.
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