An unarmed college football player had drugs — including THC and a type of synthetic psychedelic — in his system when he was shot and killed at a car dealership last month by an Arlington, Texas, police officer, an autopsy released Wednesday shows.
Christian Taylor, 19, climbed a locked gate at the Arlington dealership early the morning of August 7, where he punched a Ford Mustang’s window and stomped its windshield, the autopsy report states. Taylor then left the lot, got back into his car, drove through the dealership gates and entered the showroom.
That’s where two officers confronted him, including one who used a Taser to little effect. The other, Officer Brad Miller, then fired four shots of his own that caused wounds to Taylor’s neck, abdomen, torso, left arm and right hand, according to the autopsy.
It’s the wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen that killed Taylor, according to the report from the office of the Tarrant County chief medical examiner, which ruled the death a homicide.
The same report also the results of toxicology tests on Taylor. They found concentrations of 3.1 nanograms per milliliter of THC in his blood. THC is the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana. A nanogram is 1 billionth of a gram.
The medical examiner’s office also noted the presence of 0.76 nanograms per milliliter of the synthetic hallucinogenic 25iNOBMe in his blood. 25iNOBMe is an extremely potent drug sometimes called N-Bomb, Smiles and Wizard.
This type of drug, according to the autopsy, is “known to cause distorted perceptions, agitation and hallucinations, and have been associated with random and bizarre behavior in users.”
Officer who shot Taylor was fired
Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson told reporters that Miller — who was in the last stages of field training at the time — had been fired for “exercising poor judgment.”
Miller initially went into the building alone in pursuit, reportedly telling investigators he feared that he would be overpowered by Taylor, who was moving quickly toward him while cursing. He was later joined by the other officer, a 19-year veteran.
“(Miller’s) unilateral decision to enter the building and to continue the pursuit deeper into the building upon making contact with Mr. Taylor — along with failing to communicate with fellow officers or develop an arrest plan — created an environment of cascading consequences that produced an unrecoverable outcome,” Johnson said.
CNN placed a call Wednesday evening to Arlington police for their reaction to the autopsy, including any effect on Miller’s employment status, that was not immediately returned.
CNN also left a voicemail with Taylor’s brother for his family’s take on the autopsy.
Before his death, Taylor played defensive back at Angelo State University, where last year’s roster listed him as a 5-foot-9, 180-pound freshman.
