Autopsy: Marijuana, synthetic psychedelic found in Christian Taylor

A Tarrant County Medical Examiner's report states marijuana and a synthetic drug were found in the system of the 19-year-old shot dead by an Arlington police officer inside a car dealership in August.

Christian Taylor was shot four times by officer in training Brad Miller, according to the report that was released on Wednesday afternoon. The report also says there were no signs of physical trauma from a fight or struggle between Taylor and Miller.

Miller, 49, was terminated by Arlington police days after the incident for failing to follow departmental policy and poor judgment that resulted in the fatal shooting of Taylor, who was unarmed.

Taylor broke into the Classic Buick GMC dealership last week. Surveillance video showed Taylor vandalizing several vehicles at the dealership near Collins Street and Interstate 20.

The synthetic psychedelic in Taylor's system, 25I-NBOMe, also known as "N-Bomb," is known to cause agitation, hallucinations, random and bizarre behavior.

Dwain Fuller is a 30-year forensic toxicologist who says NBOMe is dangerous.

"It's a psychedelic drug," he said. "It's a designer drug. It can cause agitation, aggression, hallucination and altered reality…it can be actually taken orally, it can be insufflated, which is snorting it, and it can actually be vaporized and smoked."

Video of Taylor breaking through a Ford Mustang's front windshield with his hands and feet and driving his SUV through the plate glass of the showroom is the kind of behavior that Fuller says you can see with people on the drug, which is made to imitate LSD.

"You're seeing things that aren't there," said Fuller. "You're experiencing things that aren't happening, so as there were bad trips back in those days on LSD, there are bad trips on NBOMe."

Fuller feels that with the NBOMe in his system, Taylor could have perceived a distorted reality leading up to the shooting.

"So we really don't know what he was thinking and what his reality was to him that night," said Fuller. "He was probably seeing things and acting on things that nobody else was experiencing."

Fuller says that while the autopsy report indicates marijuana use, whether it was recent or present from chronic use can't really be determined.

Taylor was shot four times in the front during the incident: in the neck, chest and upper stomach.

Arlington police declined to go on camera, saying in a statement, "We are not providing any comments at this time. This case will continue through the criminal justice system."