A former Colorado paramedic has avoided a prison sentence, instead sentenced on Friday to probation following his criminally negligent homicide conviction in connection with the 2019 death of Elijah McClain – whose heart stopped after he was injected with ketamine during a police stop.
Jeremy Cooper was an Aurora Fire Rescue EMT responding to the scene on 24 August 2019 after a 911 call reporting someone “looking sketchy” in a ski mask. That person was 32-year-old McClain, later described by a friend as “the sweetest, purest person I have ever met,” who was walking home from a convenience store after buying an iced tea.
Almost immediately upon the officers’ arrival, McClain, an unarmed Black man, was violently arrested, placed in a chokehold and later injected with ketamine – after which he went into cardiac arrest, dying days later.
Cooper’s sentencing brought to a close a number of trials stretching over seven months, leading to the convictions of a police officer and two paramedics – the latter of which rarely face charges in police proceedings.