Two paramedics in Colorado, US, were found guilty of negligent homicide on Friday for their role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young African-American man who was heavily sedated during his violent arrest by white police officers.

The trial of paramedics — 49-year-old Jeremy Cooper and 51-year-old Peter Cicuniek — was the latest of three involving the death of 23-year-old McClain, who was stopped by Aurora police because a passerby said he looked suspicious. There was no evidence that he had committed any crime.

He died three days later of cardiac arrest.

His death drew media attention following the death of George Floyd, another African-American who died in May 2020 during his violent arrest by a white police officer.

A jury found the two rescuers guilty of negligent homicide, which carries a prison sentence of up to three years, according to the Washington Post. Citsuniek was also found guilty of second-degree assault for the illegal administration of the drug, and the judge ordered his immediate jail sentence. Cooper remains free on bail until March 1, when his sentence will be announced.

Lawyers for the rescuers claimed the two men simply followed protocol by administering the sedative, ketamine. But prosecutors argued throughout the trial that paramedics did not follow protocol by not examining McClain before giving him the maximum allowable dose of ketamine. The two paramedics administered 500 mg of ketamine to McClain, mistaking his weight for 91 kg, when he weighed 65 kg.

“The defendants didn’t even try. When Elijah McClain begged them to ‘help me, please,’ they left him there, overdosed him on ketamine (…) killed him,” prosecutor Jason Slothuber alleged.

The use of this powerful sedative by paramedics in the US to sedate people against their will has sparked outrage across the country and led to criminal investigations in several states.

In October, Colorado police convicted one of the white police officers charged with manslaughter in the McClain case. The other two were acquitted.

On the evening of August 24, 2019, police received a call from a citizen who reported that a man wearing a thick coat and ski mask, despite being hot, was “acting strangely” on an Aurora street. A police officer claimed that McClain, who was unarmed, tried to grab his gun.

The officers restrained McClain within seconds and headlocked him at least twice. He vomited into his ski mask and repeatedly told officers he couldn’t breathe.

According to the victim’s family, he had simply gone to buy a drink and often wore his ski mask to keep from catching a cold.

McClain’s initial autopsy in 2019 did not return a specific cause of death. However, a new autopsy in 2021 reported that the young African-American man died “of complications from ketamine administration after being forcibly restrained.”

Colorado prosecutors initially declined to investigate the case, which changed after Floyd’s death.