Elijah McClain passed away in 2019 after an unlawful arrest, and after three years went by with no explanation, it has now been determined that the neck hold and ketamine injection he received from law enforcement and emergency personnel were to blame.
According to an updated autopsy, McClain, a 23-year-old Colorado male, died as a result of being injected with the potent sedative and being detained against his will.
The cause of death was initially declared as ‘undetermined’ by an autopsy.
The autopsy was later modified in July 2021, but the coroner decided not to make it public because it allegedly contained secret grand jury material.
The ketamine amount used to subdue McClain, according to new autopsy results from Dr. Stephen Cina, “was too much for this individual and it ended in an overdose.”
Police pulled McClain over as he was strolling down the street in a Denver suburb after neighbours claimed that he appeared suspiciously dressed in a ski mask.
Although the postmortem report was not then made available to the public, a state grand jury indicted three cops and two paramedics in 2021 for manslaughter and reckless homicide, according to the Associated Press.
According to the autopsy report, McClain may have overdosed on sedatives, contrary to the pathologist’s opinion expressed in the grand jury indictment.
Because of the use of force against McClain, Cina continued, he could not rule out the possibility that metabolic changes might have caused McClain’s demise.
Despite this, the new autopsy came to the conclusion that ketamine was probably the cause of his demise.
‘I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine,’ Cina said. He added that body camera footage indicates McClain becoming ‘extremely sedated’ after being given the drug. A probe by Denver city officials found that there was no evidence justifying the police’s decision to stop McClain, who was not accused of violating any laws.
