Two Colorado paramedics were convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young unarmed Black man whose case drew national attention and forced public safety reforms in the city where he lived and died.
A mostly white jury found the paramedics, Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper, guilty of a more serious charge they faced. But the jury split on two lesser assault charges: They cleared Mr. Cooper of both assault charges, but convicted Mr. Cichuniec of one of those charges, second-degree assault for the unlawful administration of drugs.
The men had injected Mr. McClain with the powerful sedative ketamine while he was in police custody in Aurora, Colo., which doctors said left him near death. He died days later in the hospital.
The trial was a rare prosecution of paramedics, and raised the question of the role that medical personnel play in police encounters and whether they could be held criminally responsible for their actions.
Wouldn’t there be other more appropriate medications to calm someone without the possibility respitory arrest? Something like Xanax or Ativan for example? Not a pharmacist but Ketamine seems kinda hardcore.
This may be completely wrong but I’m guessing ketamine so they can inject it rather than waiting on non injection medication. I’m not sure if the other two can be injected or if available but it was a thought I had for reasoning. Not that any of this situation was handled with reasoning, it’s another tragedy in a long list of them. I have enough anxiety myself I can’t imagine what that poor guy went through in his final moments.
Benzos have their issues, but I’d probably go there in case of something like a postictal psychosis, with Haldol being a second line. Ketamine and PCP have a similar mechanism of action, so it doesn’t feel like a great med for someone with psychosis, but I’m also not a doctor or nurse, I just play one on
TVthe Internet.