Coroner Discusses His Ruling in Wavey Austin Death

The coroner has issued a ruling in the death of Wavey Austin who died after an encounter with Shreveport Police and Fire teams on April 19th.

Many local residents have called for a full investigation into this death and the death of Tommie McGlothen who died in police custody in early April.

Coroner Dr. Todd Thoma tells KEEL News Austin died from febrile delirium which is an acute and transient confusional state with high fever. He explains to us what that condition is.

Dr. Thoma says Austin's heart was enlarged and his kidneys were small. He says this was a difficult case and we had to do extensive investigation. Austin had a fever of 101.5 at the hospital, but Thoma believes it was probably even higher than that earlier.

We asked Dr. Thoma if Austin had any other injuries on his body like a black eye or busted lip and he told us the only thing he found were some slight abrasions from his wrist which were likely caused by the handcuffs.

The coroner tells KEEL "the fire department did an exemplary job" in handling this case and getting immediate medial attention to Austin.

Thoma says "There was no struggle (with police) and a Taser was not used."

The autopsy showed Austin had "underlying hypertensive cardiovascular disease with an enlarged heart that contributed to his cardiovascular arrhythmia. No infective source or significant signs of trauma were found."