An accident? Experts argue in the trial of 3 security guards in connection with the death of a man in a Detroit shopping center in 2014

DENVER — Two experts expressed differing opinions Thursday on the death of a man who was pinned to the ground by security guards at a Detroit-area shopping mall in 2014.

The Oakland County coroner defended the official conclusion that McKenzie Cochran's death was accidental. Moments earlier, another coroner had told jurors that the manner of death was “undetermined” or possibly a homicide.

More than a decade after Cochran's death at the Northland Center in Southfield, three guards are on trial for manslaughter. Video shows him struggling as guards hold him down after he received a call about trouble from a store in the mall.

According to witnesses, 25-year-old Cochran, who suffered from an enlarged heart, repeatedly said, “I can't breathe.” He was suffocating.

Dr Carl Schmidt said “young people in good shape” could tolerate being face down on the floor and tied up. But others, he told the jury, were unable to move their chests to breathe properly, which could lead to heart failure.

“It was not an accident,” said Schmidt.

Schmidt, a former Wayne County coroner, was not involved in the 2014 autopsy. Years later, District Attorney Dana Nessel brought him into the case to review the autopsy records and video of the altercation and to provide a statement.

Cochran's death was officially ruled an accident in 2014, and local prosecutors did not file charges against the guards. Nessel changed course in 2021 after the case became an issue in the 2020 district attorney race.

John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree are accused of gross negligence in their dealings with Cochran at the mall.

The doctor who performed the autopsy, Cheryl Loewe, died in 2023. So defense attorneys called their boss, Dr. LJ Dragovic, to speak to the jury. He said the Attorney General's Office asked him to reconsider Loewe's opinion.

“I have no basis to change that report because that report is well supported by significant evidence. I cannot draw any conclusions from it,” said Dragovic, the Oakland County coroner.

He said Schmidt's conclusions were “strange.”

“He claimed here, right in front of all of us, that this was not an accident. On what basis?” said Dragovic. “If someone shows me an intentional, targeted act, that is something different.”

The altercation at the mall began when a jeweler called security to report that Cochran had said he wanted to kill someone. He refused to leave the mall and was pepper sprayed by a security guard.

Soon, five guards were involved in the conflict, all trying to restrain Cochran while one attempted to handcuff him.

One of the five pleaded guilty to manslaughter last week. A security guard who directed the confrontation with Cochran died in 2017.

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