A Black man died after a police encounter in the US state of Colorado in 2019 because he was injected with a powerful sedative after being forcibly restrained, according to an amended autopsy report publicly released on Friday.
Despite the finding, the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was still listed as undetermined, not a homicide, the report shows.
McClain was put in a neck hold and injected with ketamine after being stopped by police in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, for “being suspicious”. He was unarmed.
The original autopsy report that was written soon after his death in August 2019 did not reach a conclusion about how he died or what type of death it was, such as if it was natural, accidental or a homicide. That was a major reason why prosecutors initially decided not to pursue charges.
But a state grand jury last year indicted three officers and two…
