News of former Aurora paramedic Peter Cichuniec having his prison sentence vacated was met with mixed reactions both in Colorado and beyond. Cichuniec — one of the paramedics involved in the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain in Colorado in 2019 — was convicted and sentenced in March to five years in prison but had his sentence reduced to probation on Friday.
Thomas Mayes, the vice president of the NAACP for Colorado, Wyoming and Montana says his community had no idea Cichuniec was even trying to get his sentence vacated.
So late Friday afternoon when he learned one of the men found guilty of contributing to the death of McClain would soon be getting out of prison, he felt a rush of emotions.
“Anger and hurt, mixed together; those things I’ve felt personally and for my community, I was just blown away,” said Mayes.
He says McClain’s mother Sheneen McClain is even more heartbroken.
“I know she’s not healed, and this kind of pulls the scab off the wound. It was healing,” said Mayes.