Judge frees Colorado paramedic convicted in death of Elijah McClain from prison

A judge is freeing from prison a Colorado paramedic convicted in the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man whose name became part of the rallying cries for social justice that swept the U.S. in 2020. Judge Mark Warner ruled Friday that “unusual and extenuating circumstances” justify reducing Peter Cichuniec's five-year prison sentence to four years of probation. Cichuniec's supporters cheered the sentence reduction. McClain was walking in a Denver suburb in 2019 when police responding to a suspicious person report restrained him. Cichuniec and another paramedic forcibly injected McClain with ketamine, a powerful sedative blamed for killing the 23-year-old.