STORY: A Colorado paramedic convicted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain was sentenced Friday to 14 months in a work-release program and four years of probation.
McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, died days after police stopped him, slammed him to the ground and put him in a chokehold at least twice.
During the encounter, paramedics injected him with an excessive dose of ketamine, an anesthetic used for sedation, after police said he was in a state of (quote) "excited delirium."
McClain was not suspected of wrongdoing when he was stopped.
Forty-nine-year old Jeremy Cooper, one of two paramedics charged in McClain's death, had faced up to three years in prison for his conviction of criminally negligent homicide.
Sheneen McClain, Elijah's mother, walked out of the courtroom when a tearful Cooper rose to address her late son.
"Elijah, I am a man of faith. I know you are here among us. And you can hear me. [FLASH] I am so sorry, collectively, that we all failed you."
She later returned to give her own statement and told Cooper never to invoke her son's name.
"America will never be what it could be because it does not look at all of its citizens as one race, the human race. [FLASH] From my heart to my hands. Long live, Elijah McClain. Always and forever."
Cooper's sentencing closes out the three trials around McClain's death.
One police officer was sentenced to 14 months in jail, two officers were found not guilty, and Cooper's fellow paramedic was sentenced to five years in prison. Paramedics rarely face charges in such cases.
Colorado has undergone significant police reforms since the killing of McClain and the following year's racial justice protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
But politicians, experts and many citizens say more must be done.
