“We are not God. I am not God. And we can't always have a positive outcome,” paramedic Peter Cichuniec tells the judge.
One of the two paramedics has been sentenced to five years in prison, while another awaits punishment at a hearing in April for injecting Elijah McClain with a fatal overdose of a sedative.
Police strangled McClain in the middle of the street in the Aurora area of Colorado on suspicion and paramedics injected him with ketamine while he was handcuffed.
Paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper were found guilty in December of criminally negligent homicide because they failed to properly treat McClain after his confrontation with police, police said. bbc reported.
In 2019, McClain, a 23-year-old Black massage therapist, was detained by three police officers and strangled by police while walking home from a convenience store.
Police officers in the Denver suburb of Aurora assaulted McClain while he was “responding” to a call about a “shady” person in the area.
Body camera footage of the incident showed him repeatedly telling officers, “I can't breathe.”
Prosecutors said paramedics failed to perform basic medical checks on McClain before injecting him with the maximum dose of ketamine, leading to the young man never regaining consciousness.
He died after being taken off life support three days later.
Cichuniec, convicted of second-degree assault for deciding to inject McClain with the powerful sedative, was sentenced Friday, and Cooper will learn his punishment at a hearing in April.
“There are many, many tragedies in my career, but there are people who I wish I could say are okay, but I can't,” she told the judge through tears, according to Colorado Public Radio.
“We are not God. I am not God. And we can't always have a positive outcome. We can't save everyone… Elijah will always be on my mind, along with everyone else,” he continued.
Police officers Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt were acquitted of charges in November and October, respectively.
Meanwhile, Randy Roedema was sentenced to 14 months in prison in October after being found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault.
McClain's murder came to public attention a year later, following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, which sparked nationwide protests against police brutality.
