Colorado paramedic Peter Cichuniec was sentenced Friday to five years in prison in a rare prosecution of medical responders following the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man whose name became part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the US in 2020. McClain was walking down the street in a Denver suburb in 2019 when police responding to a suspicious person report forcibly restrained him and put him in a neck hold.
- Convictions: Cichuniec and a fellow paramedic were convicted in December of criminally negligent homicide for injecting McClain with ketamine, a powerful sedative ultimately blamed for killing the 23-year-old massage therapist, per the AP. Cichuniec also was convicted on a more serious charge of second-degree assault for giving a drug without consent or a legitimate medical purpose. He'd faced up to 16 years in prison on the assault charge, and the five-year sentence was the minimum the judge could've given him under sentencing guidelines.
- Mom's reaction: McClain's mother, Sheneen McClain, raised her fist in the air as she left the courtroom following Friday's sentencing, as she has done after previous hearings. "You are a local hero no more," she said as Cichuniec sat with his attorneys at a nearby table.