Autopsy reveals Elijah McClain died from ketamine injection from paramedics

A 23-year-old black man who died after an encounter with Colorado police was injected by paramedics with too large a dose of the sedative ketamine, according to a new autopsy report.

Elijah McClain died in 2019 after police in Aurora, Colo. stopped him in response to a report that he was acting suspiciously. The massage therapist, who was unarmed, was put in a chokehold and handcuffed and then given ketamine when paramedics arrived.

An initial autopsy by Dr. Stephen Cina, a forensic pathologist, said McClain’s cause of death was “undetermined.”

In the new report Friday he said he had “insufficient information” during his 2019 autopsy.

“I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine,” Cina wrote.

The report says that the ketamine dose was too high for someone of McClain’s weight. He went into cardiac arrest and died days later at a hospital

Three police officers and two paramedics were criminally charged in McClain’s death in 2021.

McClain’s family last year reached a $15 million settlement in their lawsuit over the case.

With Post wires