According to a revised autopsy report made public Friday, a Black man died after a police encounter in a Denver suburb in 2019 because he was injected with a powerful sedative after being forcefully restrained.

Despite the discovery, the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was still classified as undetermined and not a homicide, according to the report. McClain was placed in a neck brace and injected with ketamine after being stopped by Aurora police for “being suspicious.” He was not armed.

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The initial autopsy report, written shortly after his death in August 2019, did not arrive at a conclusion about how he died or what type of death it was, such as natural, accidental, or homicide. That was a key reason why prosecutors decided not to press charges at first.

Who was Elijah McClain?

Elijah McClain was a 23-year-old black man from Aurora, Colorado, who was put in a chokehold by Aurora police in August 2019 and suffered a heart attack soon after the contact.

His death resembled that of George Floyd, who, according to prosecutors, was suffocated by a Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day 2019.

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McClain was a soft, introverted person who “played violin for kittens,” according to Twitter users. He was an animal lover and a massage therapist. Later, it was confirmed that he taught himself to play both the guitar and violin.

On August 23, 2019, McClain was walking home from a local convenience store after purchasing some tea.

According to McClain’s family, the 23-year-old was anaemic and favoured to walk with a ski mask to keep his face warm.

The Aurora Police Department got a call from a civilian reporting a “suspicious man” walking around, and 911 sent out officers, who positioned McClain in a chokehold upon their arrival.

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According to reports, McClain stated several times that he couldn’t breathe, similar to the George Floyd case, and bodycam footage procured by McClain’s family showed an officer trying to intimidate him for struggling.

“He’s laying on the ground vomiting, begging, saying, ‘I can’t breathe,'” said Mari Newman, the McClain family’s attorney.

“One of the officers says, ‘Don’t move again. If you move again, I’m calling in a dog to bite you.'”

When paramedics arrived, they administered ketamine, a powerful sedative that prompted the young man to go into cardiac arrest and fall into a coma. Three days later, he was declared dead.

According to Denver 7 News, at the time of McClain’s death, “They couldn’t determine whether McClain’s death was an accident, was due to natural causes, or is a homicide related to the police department’s use of a carotid hold.”