Colorado’s Attorney General announced that former paramedic Jeremy Cooper was sentenced state court on Friday to four years probation, 14 months of work release and 100 hours of community service. A jury convicted him of negligent homicide of Elijah McClain last December.

McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, was stopped and placed in a neck hold by police officers in Aurora, Colorado in August 2019. Cooper and his colleague then injected McClain with ketamine to sedate him. McClain went into cardiac arrest as a result and later died in the hospital.

Local prosecutors initially refused to charge the officers, which prompted Colorado Governor Jared Polis to order the state’s attorney general to investigate McClain’s death. A separate investigation found that the officers had no legal basis to stop and hold McClain. The officers and paramedics were indicted in September 2021. One officer was convicted of negligent homicide; two others were acquitted. Both paramedics were convicted of negligent homicide; Cooper’s colleague was also convicted of assault.

Although criminal defendants have a right to a jury at trial, a judge typically decides the sentence after conviction. The judge in this case chose not to give Cooper prison time because he believed the evidence did not show Cooper intentionally overdosed McClain.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser responded:

With this sentence, we now have accountability for another defendant who failed to act the way the law requires, and we have a measure of justice for Elijah McClain, his family, and loved ones. … There were many things that the officers and paramedics could have done the night of August 24, 2019 to prevent this deadly encounter.

Police brutality cases are common in the US. Last week, three police officers in California were charged with involuntary manslaughter of a detainee. In February, a police sergeant in Washington, D.C. pleaded guilty to excessive force and involuntary manslaughter of a man who had just woken up in his car. And last November, a police officer pleaded guilty to excessive force for hitting a motorist with a baton.