Nigerian who died in police custody in Austria, died from cocaine poisoning – Autopsy, as police reveals more

With the autopsy result of the death of Nigerian Kingsley Echeta in police custody in Vienna, Austria now out and public; is the controversy that surrounded his death earlier on now over?

According to the autopsy result from the Austrian forensic department Vienna (Department für Gerichtsmedizin, Wien) Kingsley “died of central respiratory paralysis due to cocaine poisoning.”

The Police said Kingsley had been “arrested because of suspicious behavior”, and that he had tried to “run away” and had been “aggressive”, as a result he had been handcuffed at his back and brought with the ambulance to the hospital – Kaiser-Franz-Josef Spital for X-ray.

The police also stated that Kingsley had protested over his arrest in the hospital and the examination as he suddenly had jumped up from his chair and wanted to knock his body against a policeman who had blocked the exit to the waiting room. Policemen took him on his upper arms and brought him down on the floor, and while he was on the floor they said that he had hit his head on the floor. When he calmed down he was sat up and taken to be x-rayed but he continued to protest against the examination and the nurses refused to examine him, according to the police.

He was said to have been brought to the prison Josefstadt to a “body packer cell”. And at 21:30 the handcuffs on him had been removed and there had been red color around his wrists otherwise there had been no injuries noticed or claimed by Kingsley, stated the police.

It was affirmed by the police that Kingsley had threatened to commit suicide and that at about 22:15 he had hit his head against the wall. After talking to him they said he had calmed down without being given any drug. At about 3:30 Kingsley was said to have crawled around on the floor of his cell and to have repeatedly hit his head against the wall and the floor. A doctor was said to have given him two vials Temesta intramuscular to calm him down, and it was noticed that he had slight bleeding injuries on his left eyebrow and on the right hand.

The Police said Kingsley suddenly had developed convulsion and that the emergency doctor had been called, who tried to revive him while he was taken to the Wilheminenspital with the ambulance. It was stated that he died at exactly 5:15.

On the examination conducted on Kingsley’s dead body, so many things were written and explained – detailed description of his lung, heart and inner organs, and many explanations are not so relevant to this report. However the autopsy result as signed by Univ. Prof. Dr. Daniele U. Risser stated that Kingsley had “swallowed a minimum of 10 pellets” filled with cocaine because nine of the pellets were found in his stomach while one got busted in his gastro-intestinal system and got to his blood one to two hours later. The pellets found in his stomach were said to be a proof that had taken the pellets orally. According to the result, further examination carried out on the substance in the pellet showed that 40% was cocaine.

Further examination on Kingsley showed high concentration of cocaine and other substances in the blood, serum and cerebral tissue. Summarily the result said it could be said that Kingsley died of central respiratory paralysis due to cocaine poisoning. The autopsy result stated further that the injuries Kingsley got as a result of hitting his head on the floor and the wall as claimed by the police were not connected to his death.

On whether Kingsley’s death could have been prevented, or whether the monitoring measures were properly carried out, the contact of an expert in anesthesia and intensive medicine in Innsbruck was given and he could be contacted for further assessment.