Story highlights Mansur Ball-Bey was shot and kept running, police say; the medical examiner says his spine was severed

Examiner conducted two investigations, but says there's still not a clear explanation

Ball-Bey family lawyer is skeptical, claiming that "we are dealing with a revisionist theory"

(CNN) The St. Louis police shooting death of 18-year-old Mansur Ball-Bey sparked days of protests earlier this month, and now one searing question has risen to the forefront: How could Ball-Bey have run from police after his spinal cord was severed?

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Graham determined last week that Ball-Bey's spinal cord was severed after police shot him in the back, though that information was not released to the media at the time. Then, this week, Graham decided to reexamine part of the black teenager's body after seeing the police evidence in the case.

The medical examiner told CNN that he decided on his own to take a second look because of questions he had about the evidence and police statements that Ball-Bey ran after being shot in the back, relative to the condition of the body during his examination. The bullet also pierced Ball-Bey's heart, which was fatal, Graham said.

"It's a matter of the physical evidence as it's been preliminarily portrayed," Graham told CNN. "It made me question how could a body be in this place if this happened?"

After his second examination, Graham said his findings can't answer whether Ball-Bey could have run immediately after being shot in the back.

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