DENVER — Colorado Black leaders on Friday vowed to call on the community to rise in protest once again if state officials fail to defend the previous homicide convictions against two former Aurora paramedics in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.
The warning, issued by members of the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership, came a day after the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled the case against former Aurora paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper should be retried in district court. Both paramedics were convicted in December 2023 of criminally negligent homicide in McClain’s death.
“What this system told us yesterday was liberty and justice for all, except Elijah McClain and anyone that looks like him,” said Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership CEO MiDian Shofner. “What we saw yesterday was the product of the flawed system.”
Denver7 political reporter Colette Bordelon was there and has the story in the video below:
In its ruling, the appeals court argued that the district court erred with respect to its instructions to jurors regarding the criminally negligent homicide charges against one of the paramedics.
Those instructions included a discussion of the “standard of care” paramedics must adhere to in situations such as when they encountered McClain, which, under Colorado’s criminally negligent homicide law, is what a “reasonable person” would do.
The appellate judges said Judge Mark Warner, who presided over the trial, erroneously refused to clarify the concept for jurors.
Because the appeals court agreed with that analysis, the court noted there wasn’t a basis for treating the case against the other paramedic convicted of homicide any differently.
Shofner argued the appellate court “just simply moved the goal posts,” adding that the courts “will use anything they can to ensure that the system does not offer or afford accountability when there is a Black life involved.”
Flanked by several activists, a Denver city council member, and the mother of Jalin Seabron, who was killed by Douglas County deputy last year, Shofner asked that Colorado officials, including Attorney General Phil Weiser, publicly affirm their intent to defend the prior convictions against the former paramedics.
“If you don't, that question will turn into a demand, and as we have seen in history, protest is the language of those unheard,” she said. “We have the playbook, we have the capacity, and we also – let me be clear – have the clarity.”
In a statement Thursday, Weiser said he would appeal the court’s decision.
“We don’t have a system that wants to digest accountability”
McClain, a 23-year-old Black man, was walking home from a convenience store in Aurora on Aug. 24, 2019, when he was stopped by police after a 911 caller reported a “sketchy” Black man walking through the neighborhood while waving his arms.
An officer who responded to the scene put McClain in a neckhold and Cooper injected him with an overdose ketamine before he suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. Chichuniec was supervising Cooper when he injected the sedative.
The 23-year-old massage therapist was taken off life support three days later. He was not armed and was not suspected of any crimes when he encountered police.
Cooper and Cichuniec — along with three Aurora police officers — were indicted by a grand jury in September 2021, more than two years after McClain died and about a year after his death garnered attention in the wake of George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020.
Elijah McClain | 360 In-Depth Coverage
Court reverses convictions of paramedics in Elijah McClain's 2019 death
Shofner said Thursday’s ruling, however, confirmed what Black communities across the country have known for decades, if not centuries.
“We don't have a system that wants to digest accountability when it comes to a Black life that is taken,” Shofner said. “Yet we are supposed to believe that we are in a post-racist society.”
She said the problem with justice in the U.S. was that “we confuse progress for permanence” as she recalled the massive protests that followed Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis, before asking herself, “where did all the good allies go?”
“Behind every reopened case is a real mother”
Veronica Seaobron, the mother of Jalin Seabron, also spoke Friday in lieu of Elijah’s mother, Sheheen McClain.
“When I heard the case had to be reopened for Miss McClain, I'll be honest, it punched me in the stomach,” she said, as she expressed how the hearing the news felt like “adding a deeper cut to an open wound.”
Jalin, a 23-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a Douglas County deputy outside the Main Event entertainment center in Highlands Ranch last year.
In that case, the sheriff’s office said Jalin refused multiple commands to drop a weapon his weapon following an altercation that escalated into a shooting inside a bathroom at the Highlands Ranch venue.
She said that upon hearing news of the appellate court’s ruling, her first reaction wasn’t arger. It was fear.
“Fear that one day this could be me. Fear of whether my heart and my soul could even go through that darkness again,” she said.
Veronica said that as a community member, she felt disturbed. But as a mother, she was mortified because she knows what that pain feels like.
“People forget that behind every reopened case is a real mother,” she said. “When the system reopens that wound, it doesn't just reopen paperwork, it reopens pain.”
She said to hear that a conviction will be overturned “when you have barely found a moment of silence… it speaks even louder. Why can’t a mother just have a moment of peace?”
Shofner said Colorado elected officials had 24 hours to reaffirm the verdict in the McClain case, adding their response to the court’s decision was a collective call to action.
“We do have the resources and the intentionality to ensure that if we feel like they don't hear us in this press conference, we know how to reach you,” she said. “Our demands are clear. Our demands are reasonable, and we will be watching.”
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