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LAS VEGAS — A grand jury’s refusal to indict a former Las Vegas police officer for using an unapproved chokehold in the death of an unarmed man last year drew anguished tears Friday from the dead man’s mother and complaints from civil rights groups.

Trinita Farmer said she blames the former officer, Kenneth Christopher Lopera, for the death of her 40-year-old son, Tashii Farmer Brown.

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“I want justice for my baby,” the mother sobbed. “They say he had an enlarged heart. I don’t know anything about that. My baby had a good heart.”

Farmer referred to Clark County coroner’s findings last year that Brown’s death was a homicide resulting from “asphyxia due to police restraint,” but that an enlarged heart and methamphetamine in Brown’s system were “significant contributing conditions” to his death.

Lopera’s legal and union representatives gave the grand jury the results of a defence investigation, including testimony from medical and police use-of-force experts, and a former mixed martial arts fighter.