Alonzo Smith, a 27-year-old teacher’s assistant who was pronounced dead last month after being discovered unconscious and handcuffed in a southeast D.C. apartment complex, died as the result of a homicide, the city’s chief medical examiner said Monday.
Police responding to 911 calls on the morning of Nov. 1 found Smith on the second floor hallway of a residential building on Good Hope Road SE in the custody of two private security guards. The Metropolitan Police Department said previously that Smith was not breathing when authorities arrived at Marbury Plaza just after 4 a.m, and that he was pronounced dead soon after at a nearby hospital.
The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Monday that Smith died of sudden cardiac arrest complicated by “acute cocaine toxicity while restrained,” and that “compression of torso” played a contributing factor.
Homicide detectives with the MPD have already been investigating Smith’s death, and prosecutors still have to decide if criminal intent was involved before charges can be brought. Previously, Amnesty International issued a statement calling for the police to conduct a “thorough, independent and impartial” investigation.
The MPD said in a statement last month that it was not yet aware of what had unfolded before its officers arrived at the apartment complex. Authorities had received three emergency calls, including one for an assault in progress, and found Smith in the custody of “special police officers” employed by Blackout Investigations, a Waldorf-based security company started by a retired Maryland State Police sergeant.
Those guards have since had their police powers revoked and stripped of their ability to carry a gun in the District, Fox 5 reported in the aftermath.
Smith’s mother, Beverly Smith, viewed her son’s body at the Medical Examiner’s office last month and told NBC News he appeared to have a broken neck, bruises on his chest and a swollen jaw.
Multiple residents of Marbury Plaza previously told HuffPost that they believed one of the security guard was involved in Smith’s death, and one supposed eyewitness who asked not to be identified claimed he heard the man yell “Somebody help me, they’re trying to kill me” shortly before his death. Relatives of Smith also suggested he may have been visiting a woman at the apartment and had gotten into a dispute.
Blackout Investigations has not yet commented publicly about the incident.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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