AURORA, Colorado — The former Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with ketamine in 2019 was sentenced to 14 months of work release related to his death during a hearing Friday in Adams County.
"Jeremy Cooper is the one who injected my son with a lethal dose of ketamine while my son laid on the ground unconscious from the brutal attacks of a bully with a badge," Sheneen McClain said at the hearing. "Jeremy Cooper followed the crowd of cowards and displayed his immorality through the lens of his own cluelessness."
Cooper was convicted in December of criminally negligent homicide but acquitted on other charges. He faced probation on the low end to a maximum of three years behind bars. Judge Mark Warner stayed Cooper's sentence until June 7 and also ordered him to serve 100 hours of community service.
Work release is an alternative to incarceration that allows people who meet specific criteria to serve time while maintaining employment or attending school in the community.
In September 2021, a statewide grand jury indicted Cooper and fellow paramedic Peter Cichuniec in McClain’s death. They went to trial together and were both convicted. Cichuniec was sentenced in March to five years in prison.
McClain was first contacted by three Aurora officers near East Colfax Avenue and Billings Street on Aug. 24, 2019, after someone called 911 about a man who was "suspicious" and wearing a ski mask. Within seconds of contacting McClain, the first officer grabbed him, and a struggle ensued. McClain was forcibly taken to the ground and placed in a carotid hold, which cut off oxygen to his brain for a short time.
He was then handcuffed and restrained on the ground for roughly 10 minutes before Cooper injected him with the ketamine. His heart stopped and he later died.
Nearly a dozen people including Cooper's wife and former coworkers spoke on his behalf. Many of them shared that if they had a medical emergency, they hoped Cooper would be the one to respond. They described him as caring and said he had saved countless lives during his more than two decades as a firefighter and paramedic.
Cooper himself also spoke and said every day he went to work, his "sole desire was to help."
"I believe I did what my training required. I thought I was helping you [McClain]," Cooper said. "It never entered my mind the color of your skin. It never entered my mind that by standing by your side, watching you while waiting for the ambulance, and giving you ketamine that I would hurt you.
"All I wanted to do was help," he said. "I will live with these decisions of this night, and I will live with your soul in my heart for the rest of my life. You are one of those patients that will be with me forever."
During Friday's hearing, Jason Slothauber with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, pushed for incarceration. He argued that Cooper was the "singularly most responsible" for McClain's death because he gave McClain ketamine without properly assessing him.
Cooper's attorney, Shana Beggan asked the judge to "be courageous" as she urged him to sentence Cooper to probation. She pointed out that he dedicated his life to helping others and had no prior brushes with the law and argued that taking him away from his wife and three children who are all under 10 would only compound the tragedy.
The Adams County district attorney initially declined to charge anyone in connection with McClain's death. In 2020, after numerous questions were raised about the incident, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Attorney General Phil Weiser as special prosecutor, and he reopened the investigation. He took the case to a statewide grand jury which returned an indictment against Cooper, Cichuniec, and three Aurora Police officers.
The paramedics were the last of five to go to trial.
"Human justice does not come anywhere close to what true accountability is," Sheneen McClain said. "I will continue to push, meditate and pray for divine justice for my son Elijah McClain, from my heart to my hands, long live Elijah McClain always and forever!"
In the first trial, a jury returned a split verdict for Aurora officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt. Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault. That same jury acquitted Rosenblatt of all charges.
In January, Roedema was sentenced to 14 months in jail. He began his sentence on March 23. He's recently appealed his conviction.
Officer Nathan Woodyard was acquitted in a separate trial and briefly returned to the department.
> Video below: Elijah McClain's mother speaks after sentencing of paramedic convicted in his death
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