Report confirms Ryan McMillan was highly intoxicated on night of death
Dalton LaFerney | News Editor
Authorities released Ryan McMillan’s autopsy report Monday, and it shows the 21-year-old was highly intoxicated by alcohol and had traces of THC, the main component of marijuana, in his system when he died, according to the document from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Since McMillan was shot and killed by a UNT police officer in December, it has been widely speculated he was intoxicated by a mind-altering drug other than alcohol. This toxicology screening dispels that belief, but McMillan’s blood-alcohol level was about .2 percent, well over the .08 percent legal limit.
Authorities report McMillan was shot twice in the chest and once in the left forearm, which McMillan’s legal team said is an indication that McMillan had his hands up when he was shot.
“The results of this autopsy report do not change our approach to this investigation,” criminologist Dexter Simpson, who is working with the McMillan family’s legal team, said Monday. “This autopsy report is very disturbing to us, and we think the results show why it was withheld by the police for so long.”
Simpson, with attorney Renee Higgenbotham-Brooks, holds McMillan was celebrating his birthday on Fry Street, where he became highly intoxicated. They said friends of McMillan took him to his apartment, at U Centre, where he found the hatchet he was carrying when he was shot.
He then went downstairs to the parking garage, where he smashed cars with the hatchet, according to a police report. Police were dispatched to the garage, and UNT police Cpl. Stephen Bean met McMillan on the corner of Oak and Fry streets. McMillan walked toward Bean, who told him multiple times to stop. McMillan did not, instead yelling, “Shoot me, just shoot me.”
(Police footage of the shooting)
Simpson said the autopsy report, which authorities withheld from the public because of the Texas Ranger investigation, will offer the public more clues into UNT’s police training.
The UNT police have not disclosed their training procedures or policies to the public in the months following the Dec. 13 death of McMillan. A Denton County grand jury did not indict Bean for shooting and killing McMillan.
“We’re going to dive deeper into this,” Simpson said.
I believe UNT is a top notch university and offers students a huge variety of organizations to join among having events thru out the school year for students to go to and volunteer at, that gives them some of the best experiences they will have in their lives. But it sucks at helping out of state students be able to stay and earn their degrees due to financial strain. My son is a freshman and is living his dream by being a student at UNT. His grades are better than they have ever been and he has joined every club and organization that he possibly could. He has really come into his own living on campus and meeting new people. All those things make it even more heartbreaking to know that he may have to leave UNT and come back home to attend a local university. I am a single mom who has had no support in any way from my 2 son’s father since the divorce 6 years ago. As of right now I’m struggling to support my youngest child who still lives at home with me, and helping my oldest with everything he needs to be able to stay at UNT. Why is an out of state student not given the help in state students are given? I don’t understand. My son’s grades are higher than a lot of his friends grades are. He has given everything he has to be a good student but because we live 4 states away from Texas he isn’t given in state tuition and wasn’t given any scholarships, only 8,000 in grants. We borrowed the rest to get him thru his first year. I have no clue how we will be able to get him through the other 3 he needs to get his degree. Is there a reason for out of state students to have such a struggle compared to in state students?