After the death of a 16-year-old girl last month, questions swirled about the cause: Was it an accident, as Los Angeles County authorities initially ruled, or was it an accident? result of injuries sustained during a school fight that were caught on camera?
But Shaylee Mejia’s final autopsy report, released Friday in response to a public records request, determined there was no connection between the fight — during which she appeared to hit her head against a wall – and his death from head trauma on March 15. Instead, the report cites injuries she suffered after falling down stairs a few days after the fight.
“Medical records from his hospital admission beginning March 10, 2024, following his fall down the stairs, document acute traumatic outcomes,” the report states. “There is no evidence to suggest that his head injuries that led to his hospitalization (…) were due to a physical alteration (sic) that occurred a few days earlier.”
But Luis Carrillo, a civil rights attorney representing Shaylee’s mother, disputed the final autopsy report, particularly the determination that the school fight was not a factor in her death. He said the family decided to conduct an independent autopsy, but the findings were not yet complete as of Friday evening.
He said the family hired Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist credited with discovering the link between football and the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
The detailed autopsy report from the Los Angeles County medical examiner indicated that Shaylee got into a fight on March 5, during which her “head hit a wall,” and she later complained of headaches and fainting.
But, according to the report, Shaylee suffered injuries that ultimately proved fatal at a party on March 9, when she fell down a flight of stairs.
Shaylee and a friend were on the second floor and “started running down the stairs,” the report states. Halfway there, Shaylee “tripped and fell down the rest of the stairs.”
Shaylee died from “aftereffects of blunt force head trauma,” or the result of prior head trauma, days after being admitted to the hospital, according to the report. The report details serious head injuries, including multiple hemorrhages and two fractures.
Paramedics then transported her to hospital where, despite treatment, she died a few days later.
Shaylee’s mother, Maria Juarez, initially questioned how the death could be considered accidental and accused her daughter’s school – the South Los Angeles Manual Arts High School – of allowing it. which she called continuous bullying and repeated fights.
Juarez also previously said his daughter passed out at the party before being taken to the hospital.
“The coroner’s duty is to determine the cause of death and not provide ‘cover’ for the (Los Angeles Unified School District) by exonerating the LAUSD from the brutal beating of Shaylee inside the… high school manual arts,” Carrillo said in a statement Friday. He also asked how many steps Shaylee had fallen, a detail not included in the final report.
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