Paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with ketamine before his death avoids prison

(26 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Brighton, Colorado -- 26 April 2024
1. Jeremy Cooper in court
2. Wide of court
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Aurora, Colorado -- 27 June 2020
3. STILL photo of a demonstrator carrying an image of Elijah McClain during a rally and march. PHOTO ID: 23357069245356
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
POOL
Brighton, Colorado -- 26 April 2024
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Warner, judge:
"Court is going to impose a four-year probationary sentencing, with a determining condition of that probationary sentence. Mr. Cooper will service 14 months in a work release program. You will complete 100 hours of use of public service."
5. Jeremy Cooper and attorney
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeremy Cooper, defendant, as if speaking to Elijah:
"There's so much I want to say to you. First, I want you to know how sorry I am that I couldn't save you. (Cries) How beyond forever devastated that I didn't get to ehear your last words. I want you to know that I would give anything to have a different outcome. Elijah, I never, ever meant for anyone to hurt you."
7. Jeremy Cooper sitting in court
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeremy Cooper, defendant: Noting all the deaths on his watch stay with him:
"Elijah, like you, these deaths are unbelievably heavy on my heart. I can't bring you back, but I can and will keep your spirit alive and moving forward. I will never stop trying to learn and improve, to help others."
9. Sheneen McClain sitting in court
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheneen McClain, Elijah McClain's mother:
"I'm here to witness the sentencing for Jeremy Cooper and his participation in my son Elijah McClain's murder. Human justice does not come anywhere close to what true accountability is. So I will continue to say, meditate and pray for divine justice for my son, Elijah McClain. From my heart to my hands. Long live Elijah McClain. Always and forever. Thank you, Your Honor."
11. Wide of court
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheneen McClain, Elijah McClain's mother:
"Jeremy Cooper followed the crowd of cowards and displayed his immorality through the lens of his own cluelessness, before Jeremy Cooper injected the drug ketamine into my son's unconscious body. Jeremy Cooper did what he felt was best. He did nothing. Jeremy Cooper did not check for my son's pulse. Jeremy Cooper did not conduct a thorough examination to see if my son was breathing normally."
13. Jeremy Cooper standing in court
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheneen McClain, Elijah McClain's mother:
"The lack of humanity in your comments are not a surprise at all. Eternal shame on you all."
15. Jeremy Cooper hugging wife
16. Various, Sheneen McClain and others walking out after sentencing
STORYLINE:
A former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a powerful sedative avoided prison and was sentenced to probation Friday in the Black man’s killing that helped fuel the 2020 racial injustice protests.
Jeremy Cooper had faced up to three years in prison after being found guilty in a jury trial last year of criminally negligent homicide. He administered a dose of ketamine to McClain, 23, who had been forcibly restrained after police stopped him as the massage therapist was walking home in a Denver suburb in 2019.
The sentencing caps a series of trials that stretched over seven months and resulted in the convictions of a police officer and two paramedics. Criminal charges against paramedics and emergency medical technicians involved in police custody cases are rare.
“Eternal shame on all of you,” Sheneen McClain said.
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