Cause of death known in case of teenager fatally hit by police in Mississauga

A 17-year-old black boy was fatally hit by a police car in Mississippi in March.

Kadarius Smith died of “massive blunt traumatic brain injury,” according to the medical examiner’s report just obtained by PEOPLE. The autopsy expert ruled the accident an accident.

The four-page report notes that Kadarius suffered, among other things, a skull fracture and a fracture of the left femur, a subarachnoid hemorrhage, as well as brain contusions and lacerations.

“The above-named decedent was reportedly struck by a vehicle,” Erin A. Barnhart noted in her report. The driver of the vehicle was a Leland police officer.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Kadarius’ family, said in a statement that the police officers involved in his death “must be held accountable for their deadly actions.”

“The autopsy results document the cruel and tragic manner in which Kadarius left us – with his head crushed under the enormous weight of a patrol car,” Crump said, adding: “There is no circumstance under which it would be justified to run over another human being with a car and crush his head in the process.”

The circumstances of the fatal car accident are unclear.

Citing an unnamed witness, Crump claims that Kadarius was walking home with friends in the early hours of March 21 when “a patrol car began to pursue him.”

In a heavily redacted incident report obtained by PEOPLE, an unnamed officer claims they were called to a nearby home because there were “two suspects with handguns.”

The two-page report names only one suspect – a black man – whose age is not given and whose name is not mentioned. Kadarius is mentioned by name in other parts of the report. The second suspect is not mentioned additionally in the report.

In the weeks following Kadarius’ death, his family asked for footage from body cameras and dashboard cameras. Leland Police Department representative Edward J. Bogen confirmed to PEOPLE that none existed because he said officers and patrol cars were not equipped with cameras at the time.

“Not having body or dashboard camera technology in 2024 is irresponsible and speaks to a widespread cultural problem in these departments,” says Crump, who has represented the family of Trayvon Martin as well as several black teenagers who died in high-profile police-involved deaths, including Michael Brown and Martin Lee Anderson.

The officers are now equipped with both cameras, Bogen tells PEOPLE.

On March 21, police were called to a home in Leland around 1:45 a.m. In the incident report, an officer says Kadarius “jumped off the porch” and “started running.”

That officer lost sight of Kadarius, who made his way toward Huddleston Street, where another unnamed officer in a patrol car — identified in the report only as a black male — also pursued the teen, the report says. That officer “was unable to immediately stop the patrol car at that time” and “encountered Kadarius Smith with the patrol unit,” the report says.

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The teenager was taken to Delta Regional Hospital in Greenville, Mississippi, and later pronounced dead, the report said.

The report includes the account of the officer who pursued Kadarius on foot and that of an officer who arrived on the scene after he had been struck and was “lying on the ground, barely able to react.” However, the account of the driver of the patrol car is not included.

In the report, officials do not mention that a weapon was found on Kadarius or in the area, and Crump says none was found.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Mississippi Highway Patrol have been tasked with investigating the incident.

In an email dated Wednesday, July 17, Bogen said the police department “never received a report” from either agency.

Bogen declined to answer a number of questions about the autopsy report.

At the time of publication, the identities of the officers at the scene, including the driver, had not been released, and Bogen said the driver was “back on duty with the police.”