The Sacramento County Coroner's Office announced this morning that it has been unable to determine what exactly caused the death of the man who died in Sacramento police custody after allegedly shooting a Twin Rivers police officer.
However, the coroner's office noted in a press release that it is the opinion of the office that Tyrone Smith's death is a "direct result of a combination of factors including Mr. Smith's physical exertion at the time of arrest and his pre-existing medical condition."
That pre-existing condition included asthmatic bronchitis; truncal obesity; hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; unspecified psychiatric illness and cannabinoid intoxication.
Smith, 32, died Oct. 22 in the back of a Sacramento police car as he was being transported to police headquarters for questioning. Police had arrested Smith in connection with the shooting of a Twin Rivers police officer earlier that day.
That officer suffered critical injuries but survived.
Smith's death immediately created an uproar in the community as suspicions arose that police actions were responsible for his death, either as retribution or because of negligence. The coroner's office announced several days later that Smith's body showed no visible signs of trauma, but suspicions lingered among some residents that perhaps some other police action - such as how Smith was placed in the patrol car - played a role in his death.
But in her written autopsy report, Chief Forensic Pathologist Stephany Fiore, said she found no evidence of positional asphyxia, a condition that causes death in people who are positioned in a way in which they cannot breathe.
"It is my opinion that the wedged position on the floor of the vehicle is more reflective of his advanced decompensated state than a principle factor in his death," Fiore wrote, after explaining that at some point during his ride in the patrol car Smith slid off the backseat onto the floor.
In the news release, coroner's officials explained the meaning of the "undetermined" manner of death: "Undetermined (or could not be determined) is a classification used when the information pointing to one manner of death (accident, homicide, suicide, natural) is no more compelling than one or more other competing manners of death in thorough consideration of all available information," the release states.
"So why did Mr. Smith die while in police custody?" Fiore wrote in her report. "The death appears to be multi-factorial."
For more information, check back later.
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