Paramedic gets 5 years in prison for Elijah McClain’s death in rare case against medical responders

Sheneen McClain, left, the mother of Elijah McClain, and a supporter leave the Adams County Justice Center in Brighton, Colo. on Friday, March 1, 2024. Peter Cichuniec, a Colorado paramedic was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for the death of Elijah McClain in a rare prosecution of medical responders that has left officials rethinking how they treat people in police custody. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via AP) BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado paramedic 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 U.S. 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.& His final words& — “I can’t breathe” — foreshadowed those of& George Floyd& a year later in Minneapolis. Peter 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. Cichuniec also was convicted on...