Autopsy of Woman Killed by Police Released

Pathologists cannot conclude whether Tyisha Miller was conscious when she was shot and killed by Riverside police in December, according to a final autopsy report released Wednesday by the Riverside County coroner’s office.

The autopsy did find that at some point during the outburst of shooting, Miller, 19, was in an upright position as she sat behind the wheel of her parked, idling vehicle, said Chief Deputy Coroner Neil Lingle.

That conclusion might bolster the Police Department’s contention that Miller, who had been in a reclined position, moved for a gun in her lap. That motion, the department has said, prompted four officers to fire 24 shots at Miller, striking her 12 times and killing her instantly--a response that police critics have condemned as excessive.

Lingle said it was deemed unlikely that the impact of bullets from behind Miller would have forced her body forward from a reclined position.

The report also indicated that Miller did not fire her weapon at the officers, as police initially reported but later recanted. In his written report, Deputy Coroner Brad Birdsall said he found a semiautomatic handgun next to her right side, with a live round in its chamber and three live rounds in its magazine.

Birdsall said he found the weapon “underneath her jacket,” but it was unknown whether it was there when she was shot or whether her jacket had been moved by emergency personnel before Birdsall examined the death scene hours later. A coroner’s office spokesman said later he would not speculate on that issue.

Among other unresolved questions surrounding Miller’s death was whether she was in medical distress at the time she was killed. The autopsy was unable to conclude whether she was in the throes of a medical emergency, Lingle said.

Coroner’s officials emphasized Wednesday that they were only reporting on the specific cause of her death, not the circumstances surrounding it.

Previously released toxicology reports showed that Miller’s blood-alcohol level was 0.13% when she died--about 1 1/2 times the legal limit for driving. Those tests also showed traces of cannabinoid, a byproduct of marijuana, in her system, but Lingle said Wednesday that those findings were inconclusive.

Miller was shot Dec. 28 after she drove into a Riverside gas station with a flat tire. A cousin and friend were called to the scene, found her apparently unconscious and foaming at her mouth, and called 911 for paramedics, warning the dispatcher that Miller had a handgun in her lap.

Four police officers who responded to the scene said they were unable to rouse her and, concerned about her medical condition, broke out the driver’s window to reach for her weapon. At that point, police said, Miller reached for her gun and the four officers opened fire.

The Rev. Ron Gibson, one of several family representatives who attended Wednesday’s news conference by the coroner’s office, said he had “no gripes” with the autopsy’s findings. He and others said, however, that they were concerned with the level of expertise of the coroner’s office, and were awaiting the results of a second autopsy conducted privately at the family’s request.

The Riverside Police Department has almost completed its internal investigation into the shooting, saying that it has been waiting for the final autopsy report and a final forensics report from the state Department of Justice crime lab.

That sealed report will be forwarded to the Riverside County district attorney’s office, which will decide whether criminal charges should be filed against police. The FBI also is conducting an inquiry to decide whether the Justice Department should investigate the shooting.