Waukegan Police Cleared In Death Of Avion Cotton; Video Shows Officers Telling Him To Spit Out Drugs: 'Dude, You're Gonna Die'

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Lake County prosecutors have cleared Waukegan police of any wrongdoing in the death of 31-year-old Avion Cotton, who collapsed during a foot chase last summer.

Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim said his office determined Cotton died solely of a drug overdose after swallowing two baggies containing cocaine mixed with fentanyl.

"Toxicological testing of Mr. Cotton's blood revealed 'lethal levels of Fentanyl, Cocaine, and Heroin.'" Nerheim wrote in a letter to Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles.

The Lake County Coroner's office said there were no signs of physical trauma during an autopsy.

Waukegan police have said detectives went to a home on the 600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue on June 27, 2019, to execute a search warrant for drugs, when they saw Cotton pull up and approach the house.

Police said he was the subject of an active arrest warrant, and ran away when he saw the officers, but fell down before officers caught up to him and arrested him. While running away, police said he swallowed an "unknown white substance" and refused commands to spit it out.

Cotton's family and other witnesses have said police used excessive force.

"They was beating up Avion. They was tasing him," his cousin Anita Johnson said last summer. "He wasn't violent. He wasn't a gangbanger. Yes, he had been to prison. Yes, he did wrong, but that's not who he was a person. There's just things he's done."

Witnesses said officers used force on Cotton even though he wasn't moving.

"He wasn't fighting them. They was on him, and choking him, macing him," witness Nicki Flowers said. "When I came out of the house he was laying in the yard with handcuffs on. He couldn't do nothing, because he had handcuffs on. I had seen eight officers jump out over him. When they was standing over him he wasn't moving."

Nerheim disputed the family's claims, saying the various body camera and home surveillance videos never show officers using a stun gun or "any other defensive device," and also do not show police choking, abusing, or tripping Cotton.

"I do not find that any of your officers acted contrary to the law and consider this matter closed," he wrote.

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Videos released by police show officers repeatedly told Cotton to spit out the baggies he had swallowed. Cotton can be heard saying "spit what out?"

"Avion, spit that s*** out, you hear me? Spit it out. Dude, you're gonna die if that s*** goes into your system. Spit it out, come on. Dude, you're gonna die. I can see the white powder on your mouth. Spit it out. You can see it, dude. Look at that. Spit that s*** out, bro. You're gonna die. ... I don't give a s*** right now about anything other than you surviving this," an officer is heard saying in the videos.

According to Nerheim, the baggies Cotton swallowed contained a total of 38 grams of illegal drugs.

Police administered naloxone – a heroin antidote – and called for paramedics, but were unable to resuscitate him. He later died at a hospital.