Autopsy: Student Killed by Cop Had 'N-Bomb' in Blood

Synthetic drug known to cause hallucinations found in his system
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2015 10:08 AM CDT

The 19-year-old Texas college student shot dead by a cop at an Arlington car dealership on Aug. 7 had taken a drug that may have caused him to hallucinate, per an autopsy report released yesterday. It details the presence of a drug with similar effects to LSD known as NBOMe, or "N-Bomb," in Christian Taylor's blood, along with evidence of recent marijuana use. The synthetic drug can "cause distorted perceptions, agitation, and hallucinations" and has been "associated with random and bizarre behavior in users," the autopsy notes, per the Dallas Morning News. Surveillance video shows Taylor stomping on the windshield of a parked Ford Mustang before driving his own car into the dealership showroom.

He was later shot four times in the neck, chest, and abdomen by officer-in-training Brad Miller; that scene was not captured on video. Police say Miller entered the building alone without telling other officers and ordered Taylor to get on the ground, per NBC News and the AP. Taylor reportedly swore at the officer and moved toward him. He was shot from 10 feet away, police say. An attorney for Taylor's family says that "regardless of what may have been in his system, this was still an unjustified death of a young man," though Miller's attorney hopes this "very significant evidence" will cause the police chief to reverse his decision to fire Miller. (More Arlington, Texas stories.)

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