The death of Michael Marshall, 50, was ruled a homicide by the Denver Medical Examiner's Office Friday. Marshall was being held at the Denver Jail and died after being restrained by deputies during a "psychotic episode."
According to the office, Marshall's death was caused by "complications of positional asphyxia to include aspiration pneumonia due to being physically restrained by law enforcement during an acute psychotic episode."
The incident happened on Nov. 11 and sent Marshall to the hospital. He was taken off of life support nine days later, according the the Denver Post.
Denver Sheriff Patrick Firman called the death a tragedy and promised a thorough investigation in a press release from the Sheriff's Department.
The release also states that "the Medical Examiner’s designation of Mr. Marshall’s death as a “homicide” is not a determination that a criminal act took place. The District Attorney’s (DA) office will make that determination at the conclusion of its investigation."
The full text of the Denver Medical Examiner's Office release is below:
On November 20, 2015 at 6:33pm, the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner responded to Denver Health Medical Center on a reported death. Mr. Michael Marshall DOB 05/10/1965 was in custody at the Denver Downtown Detention Center at 490 W. Colfax Ave when he became unresponsive after being physically restrained on November 11, 2015. Mr. Marshall was then transported from the detention center by ambulance to Denver Health Medical Center where he failed to respond to treatment and was pronounced dead on November 20th. An autopsy was completed and the cause of death was determined to be complications of positional asphyxia to include aspiration pneumonia due to being physically restrained by law enforcement during an acute psychotic episode. The manner of death was determined to be homicide.
