photo courtesy of Bickerton Law Group
According to the Associated Press, the former South African pro rugby player who was shot by Hawaii police back in 2021 was found to have been suffering from CTE at the time of his death. Lindani Myeni’s degenerative brain disease was found during an extensive addition to his autopsy report in an attempt to explain his odd behavior leading up to his death.
The autopsy report revealed by AP explained the findings determined by the Boston University CTE Center. 29-year-old Myeni was found to have stage three chronic traumatic encephalopathy, more commonly known as CTE, which is a disease mostly found in athletes who deal with repeated head trauma. Health professionals found the diagnosis concerning because of how severely the condition had progressed while he was still so young.
The initial medical examiner of Myeni, Dr. Masahiko Kobayashi, initially had suspected the former rugby player had CTE due to his reportedly odd behavior before being killed by police. He suggested that the revelation was incredibly important and could explain many of the questions surrounding his death at the hands of Hawaii police.
“We can’t say for sure whether or not CTE in anyone’s brain can cause them to do any particular action,” Kobayashi said. However, severe CTE is often accompanied by erratic behavior, paranoia, and impulsivity.
Myeni’s wife had previously filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Hawaii police for shooting her husband – accusing them of doing so because he was Black. The CTE diagnosis took her entirely by surprise.
She told the outlet, “I had no clue. He had no clue. So it was kind of devastating because it felt like … someone was telling me like, hey, he died from racism at 29, but he was going to be killed from his favorite sport at 50 or 51 anyway.”
As previously reported by News Onyx, Myeni approached police unarmed on April 14, 2021, while officers were responding to a disturbance report. He was allegedly acting erratic, confused, and attempted to get physical with the officers despite being told multiple times to stay back. The responding officers shot and killed Myeni after he began assaulting them.