Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic Jeremy Cooper stood above the slight 23-year-old man as he lay face down in the grass, a policeman’s knee in his back, wrists handcuffed and pulled high behind him.

For roughly six minutes, Cooper observed the man crying, gagging and calling out for help while being pinned face down by two officers. The paramedic asked no questions and performed no physical exam before deciding that the young man was suffering from “excited delirium” — a controversial term used to describe people displaying extremely agitated behavior.

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Ketamine: An alternative to police force or a silent killer?

by Caralin Nunes, Wyatt Myskow and Grace Copperthite, Cronkite News
April 26, 2024

<h1>Ketamine: An alternative to police force or a silent killer?</h1>
<p class="byline">by Caralin Nunes, Wyatt Myskow and Grace Copperthite, Cronkite News <br />April 26, 2024</p>
<p>Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic Jeremy Cooper stood above the slight 23-year-old man as he lay face down in the grass, a policeman’s knee in his back, wrists handcuffed and pulled high behind him. </p>
<p>For roughly six minutes, Cooper observed the man crying, gagging and calling out for help while being pinned face down by two officers. The paramedic asked no questions and performed no physical exam before deciding that the young man was suffering from “excited delirium” — a controversial term used to describe people displaying extremely agitated behavior.</p>
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Ketamine: An alternative to police force or a silent killer?

Caralin Nunes, Wyatt Myskow and Grace Copperthite, Cronkite News
April 26, 2024

Aurora Fire Rescue paramedic Jeremy Cooper stood above the slight 23-year-old man as he lay face down in the grass, a policeman’s knee in his back, wrists handcuffed and pulled high behind him. 

For roughly six minutes, Cooper observed the man crying, gagging and calling out for help while being pinned face down by two officers. The paramedic asked no questions and performed no physical exam before deciding that the young man was suffering from “excited delirium” — a controversial term used to describe people displaying extremely agitated behavior.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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