Rita Gowens sings during a service at Celebration Church at Arrow Heights in Anderson, Ind., on Sunday, March 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
This image provided by Rita Gowens shows her son, Demetrio Jackson. Gowens remembers him as a happy boy with chunky cheeks that inspired the nickname “Meatball.” (Courtesy Rita Gowens via AP)
This photo provided by Rita Gowens shows her son, Demetrio Jackson. (Courtesy Rita Gowens via AP)
Rita Gowens speaks about her son, Demetrio Jackson, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, in Anderson, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
In this combination of images from body-camera videos, medics prepare to inject sedatives to Ivan Gutzalenko in Richmond, Calif., in 2021; Hunter Barr in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2020, and Wesley Garrett-Henry in San Diego, Calif., in 2020. An investigation led by The Associated Press published in 2024, has found the practice of giving sedatives to people detained by police spread quietly over the last 15 years, built on questionable science and backed by police-aligned experts. (Richmond Police Department, Colorado Springs Police Department, San Diego Police Department via AP)
In this image from Richmond Police Department body-camera video, a paramedic, left, holds a syringe as he prepares to inject Ivan Gutzalenko, 47, with the sedative midazolam in Richmond, Calif., on March 10, 2021. When the paramedic returned three minutes after the injection, Gutzalenko lay motionless. He was declared dead at a hospital. An investigation by The Associated Press found that at least 16 people died in California in 2012-2021 following physical encounters with police during which medical personnel also injected them with a powerful sedative. (Richmond Police Department via AP)
In this image from Colorado Springs Police Department body-camera video, a paramedic prepares to inject ketamine as police restrain Hunter Barr outside his father's home in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sept. 25, 2020. Retired postal worker Mark Barr had called 911 for help controlling his son, who he said wasn't violent but was having a bad reaction to LSD. He watched as a medic gave two injections. His son was dead within hours. "I couldn't figure out why that was necessary," he said of the second injection. (Colorado Springs Police Department via AP)
In this image from San Diego Police Department body-camera video, a medic prepares to administer an injection of Versed in the left shoulder of Wesley Garrett-Henry, 32, in San Diego, Calif., on May 9, 2020. (San Diego Police Department via AP)
This photo provided by Rita Gowens shows her son, Demetrio Jackson, at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis., in October 2021. Gowens spoke to him, held his hand and hoped for a miracle. She eventually agreed to remove him from a ventilator after his condition didn’t improve, singing into his ear as he took his final breaths: “You’ve never lost a battle, and I know, I know, you never will.” (Rita Gowens via AP)
This photo provided by Honey Gutzalenko shows her husband, Ivan Gutzalenko. "I know from being a registered nurse since 2004, you don't administer a sedative to someone who is clearly already in respiratory distress," she said, adding that his death has been devastating to their two teenage children. (Honey Gutzalenko via AP)
In this image from El Paso County Sheriff's Office body-camera video, Jerica LaCour is restrained on a gurney in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Jan. 11, 2018. "Guess who gets ketamine?" paramedic Jason Poulson of AMR, the nation's largest ambulance company, said. AMR and Poulson deny responsibility for LaCour’s death in her family’s pending lawsuit, arguing LaCour was experiencing excited delirium and ketamine was appropriate. (El Paso County Sheriff's Office via AP)
In this image from Altoona Police Department body-camera video, an officer fires a Taser at Demetrio Jackson in a parking lot on the border of Altoona and Eau Claire, Wis., on Oct. 8, 2021. After officers couldn’t handcuff Jackson, the officer fired additional darts. (Altoona Police Department via AP)
In this image from Altoona Police Department body-camera video, Demetrio Jackson is placed on a gurney after paramedics administered an injection of the sedative ketamine in a parking lot on the border of Altoona and Eau Claire, Wis., on Oct. 8, 2021. Later, Jackson stopped breathing on the way to Sacred Heart Hospital. He'd suffered cardiac arrest and had no brain function. (Altoona Police Department via AP)
An urn holding the ashes of Demetrio Jackson is displayed in the home of his mother, Rita Gowens, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, in Anderson, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Rita Gowens prays during a service at Celebration Church at Arrow Heights, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, in Anderson, Ind. She has nightmares about how police and EMS treated her son, Demetrio Jackson. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
In this image from El Paso County Sheriff's Office body-camera video, a deputy approaches a distraught Jerica LaCour in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Jan. 11, 2018. She was stressed about family finances, husband Anthony LaCour recalled, when deputies found her trespassing at a trucking company. (El Paso County Sheriff's Office via AP)
In this image from Altoona Police Department body-camera video, police approach Demetrio Jackson in a parking lot on the border of Altoona and Eau Claire, Wis., on Oct. 8, 2021. Jackson’s 2021 death illustrates an often-hidden way fatal U.S. police encounters end: not with the firing of an officer’s gun but with the silent use of a medical syringe. (Altoona Police Department via AP)
This photo provided Anthony LaCour shows his wife, Jerica LaCour, of Colorado Springs, Colo., holding one of their five children. She was stressed about family finances, Anthony recalled, when deputies found her distraught and trespassing at a trucking company in Jan. 11, 2018. (Anthony LaCour via AP)
Rita Gowens is comforted during a service at Celebration Church at Arrow Heights in Anderson, Ind., on Sunday, March 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
In this image from Richmond Police Department body-camera video, police restrain Ivan Gutzalenko in Richmond, Calif., on March 10, 2021. (Richmond Police Department via AP)
Rita Gowens speaks about her late son, Demetrio Jackson, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, in Anderson, Ind. There are few days when she doesn’t ask, “Why did they give him an animal tranquilizer?” (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
This image provided by Robert Cutler shows his son, David Cutler. David was handcuffed facedown in the scorching Arizona desert in 2017 when deputies asked a paramedic to sedate the 132-pound man suffering heat stroke. The medic did not bring monitoring equipment and testified he was surprised when the 23-year-old stopped breathing after the injection. (Courtesy Robert Cutler via AP)
Dejia Jackson speaks about her father, Demetrio Jackson, during an interview at Celebration Church at Arrow Heights, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, in Anderson, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
In this image from Altoona Police Department body-camera video, police restrain Demetrio Jackson in a parking lot on the border of Altoona and Eau Claire, Wis., on Oct. 8, 2021, minutes before a paramedic injects him with ketamine. Five medical experts who reviewed the case for AP said Jackson’s behavior did not appear to be dangerous enough to justify the use of ketamine. (Altoona Police Department via AP)
This family photo shows Giovani Berne of Palm Bay, Fla. The 18-year-old was given a ketamine injection during an encounter with police on Dec. 12, 2016. His heart stopped beating afterwards. Berne's sister, Christina, said the family didn't know he had been given ketamine until contacted by The Associated Press years later, but "we knew something bad happened in the ambulance." A medical examiner ruled that Berne died of excited delirium. (Courtesy Christina Berne via AP)
FILE - A vial of ketamine is displayed for a photograph in Chicago on July 25, 2018. An investigation led by The Associated Press published in 2024, has found the practice of giving sedatives to people detained by police spread quietly over the last 15 years, built on questionable science and backed by police-aligned experts. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford, File)
Lawyers console paramedic Peter Cichuniec after his sentence is read on Friday, March 1, 2024 in Brighton, Colo. Cichuniec was sentenced to five years in prison for the death of Elijah McClain in a rare prosecution of medical responders that has left officials rethinking how they treat people in police custody. (Colorado State Court via AP, Pool)
In this image from Colorado Springs Police Department body-camera video, police restrain Hunter Barr outside his father’s home in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sept. 25, 2020. Retired postal worker Mark Barr had called 911 for help controlling his son, who he said wasn't violent but was having a bad reaction to LSD. He watched as a medic gave two injections. His son was dead within hours. "I couldn't figure out why that was necessary," he said of the second injection. (Colorado Springs Police Department via AP)