Many of you may have already read the verdicts rendered for Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, two Aurora-area Firefighter/Paramedics who were involved in the care and transport of Elijah McClain in 2019 in Aurora, Colorado. The encounter between Mr. Mcclain, Aurora PD, and Aurora FD ultimately resulted in his untimely death. For those unfamiliar with the case, the brief summary is thus:

_{A suspicious person call resulted in a PD stop of Elijah, who was walking home from a convenience store with the merchandise he purchased. Several Aurora PD officers on-scene attempted to restrain Elijah, ultimately utilizing a carotid choke hold to subdue him to the ground. During this time, EMS was also summoned as he was suspected to be suffering from “excited delirium” – a diagnosis made by PD, not by EMS, as they had not yet arrived on-scene. When AFD arrived on-scene, according to body-cam footage, the FF/Medics were directed by PD to restrain Elijah with Ketamine because of his apparent excited state (it was later determined he was likely hypoxic from the carotid hold, and not because of an underlying drug- or psychosis-related delirium state) and the paramedics, without performing their own physical exam, checking any vital signs, or determining the appropriate course of action, seemed to follow directions from APD, who do not have medical control authority over AFD. The paramedics administered 500mg of Ketamine (likely an inappropriate dose and inappropriate medication to give in the first place), and then placed Elijah in a prone position on the stretcher for transport. No vital signs were assessed and he remained handcuffed and prone for enough of a period of time to cause apnea (stopped breathing) and went into respiratory arrest, ultimately going into cardiac arrest and dying while under EMS care and in APD custody.}

Continue reading “McClain, Paramedics, Qualified Immunity, Other Thoughts” →