According to an updated autopsy report released on Friday, Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man who died in 2019 following a run-in with the authorities, died because paramedics gave him a dose of ketamine that was too high for someone his height. His death fueled calls for law enforcement accountability.
The result is a significant change from the initial autopsy report, which said that there was not enough information to identify how McClain died and was published six months after the violent altercation in Aurora, Colorado. The new conclusions are supported by data, such as video from police cameras and other records, which a county pathologist claimed he requested in 2019 but never received.
Even though it’s still stated that the death was “undetermined” rather than a homicide or an accident — the report could strengthen prosecution of the police and first responders charged in McClain’s death and reignite calls for greater city accountability.
In August 2019, when McClain, a massage therapist and self-taught musician, was making his way home, police detained him after receiving a 911 call about a person acting “indecisively.” He was seized by police and forced into a carotid artery, which prevents blood from reaching the brain. He received an injection of the potent sedative ketamine from paramedics. He experienced heart arrest on the way to the hospital and passed away a few days later.
According to forensic pathologist Stephen Cina’s revised postmortem report, McClain was roughly 5-f00t-7 height and weighed 140 pounds, therefore the ketamine injection was too much for him.
According to Cina, a review of body camera footage, which police withheld during the initial autopsy, revealed McClain was “very sedated” within minutes. he claimed.Put simply, that dose of ketamine was too much for this individual and resulted in an overdose, even though his blood ketamine levels were at ‘therapeutic’ blood concentrations,” Cina wrote. “I believe that without the administration of ketamine, Mr. McClain would most likely be alive.”
It’s not clear if the carotid grip contributed to his death, Cina said, noting that the medical literature suggested it wouldn’t have. He said that he saw nothing on McClain’s neck, suggesting he died of asphyxiation, and that McClain was able to speak after officers released him.
Shots sustained for officers who mocked Elijah McClain’s stranglehold death
Cina also noted that McClain was “alive and responsive to painful stimuli” up until the point he received the ketamine shot.
