A Black man at the center of a wrongful-death lawsuit choked to death while in police custody, according to a medical examiner's autopsy report completed last week. Christopher Hicks, 39, who died May 26 after allegedly resisting arrest for passing between moving CTA rail cars, died of asphyxia due to restraint in a homicide, Dr. Clare Cunliffe, deputy Cook County medical examiner, determined in a Sept. 16 report. Cunliffe concluded Hicks suffered internal injuries, including hemorrhaging, to his neck, the report stated. The report will become evidence in the federal lawsuit filed in June against the city and four Chicago police officers by Hicks' brother, Billie Ray Lewis. The suit contends that police officers beat Hicks while another officer placed him in a chokehold. Lewis seeks more than $3 million in damages from the city, the suit stated. "They chased him," said Dan Alexander, who is representing Lewis. "Two officers handcuffed him, and another had him in a chokehold." Alexander said he has received recordings of calls to the city's 911 emergency center reporting that two white men were beating an African-American man. "Both of the cops were white," Alexander said, while Hicks was African American. According to the tapes, one caller told a 911 dispatcher that she saw "a man holding a man down with his arms behind his back." A few minutes later, another caller told a dispatcher, "Two guys have a guy on the floor in a chokehold ... two male whites on a male black." [more
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