Preliminary autopsy findings of Ohio teenager Ethan Liming were released last week which found that the 17-year-old boy suffered a broken neck when he died at the scene of a brutal brawl on June 2. Liming was beaten to death outside of a school founded by LeBron James in Akron after getting into a scuffle with three individuals who were playing basketball at an outdoor court nearby.
According to the New York Post, the teenager succumbed to a broken skull bone from his attackers who beat him till he lost consciousness. Medical findings revealed by the Summit County Medical Examiner also stated that a shoe print was embedded on his chest wall as a result of the force of the kicks he sustained at the parking lot of the I Promise School. Liming was said to have endured gruesome injuries in his last moments and died from a blunt force trauma.
The teenager's occipital bone was broken– which is the bone found at the base of the skull and connects to the cervical spine. Visible injuries on his body indicated that he also sustained a black eye as well as a head laceration.
Meanwhile, three suspects involved in the attack have been arrested by U.S. Marshals and Akron Police and are currently detained. Deshawn Stafford Jr., 20, his brother Tyler Stafford, 19, and 21-year-old Donovan Jones were charged with murder and felonious assault and are being held on a $1 million bond each at the Summit County Jail. All three suspects pleaded not guilty to all charges at their arraignment on June 13 as their defense attorneys said their clients thought they were being attacked by a fully automatic firearm and merely retaliated.
Turns out, Liming was shooting a SplatRBall loaded with water pellets. Another point of defense they made is that the men could have knocked out Liming with one punch and that the impact of his head on the concrete could have well fractured his skull.
Police found Liming flat on his back on the ground and bleeding from his head, his nose, mouth, and ears. His skull was the only bone broken in the teen's body at which the medical examiner is yet to determine if he died from that trauma or his other major injuries. A final autopsy report and Liming's death certificate have not yet been finalized pending further investigation.
