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Chris Cornell Police Report Details the Hours Before Singer’s Death

ARLINGTON, TX - JANUARY 12: Musician Chris Cornell performs at the Dallas Premiere of the Paramount Pictures film ’13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’ at the AT&T Dallas Cowboys Stadium on January 12, 2016 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)

The Detroit News has obtained a police report detailing the hours before and after Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell’s death early Thursday morning. According to the report, Cornell’s bodyguard, Martin Kirsten, found the singer unresponsive on his hotel room’s bathroom floor just at about 12:15 am, “with blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band around (his) neck.”

Kirsten had last seen Cornell about 45 minutes prior, according to the report, when he stopped by the singer’s room to fix his computer. He also told police he gave Cornell two Ativans, which he was prescribed for anxiety. Five minutes later, at 11:35 p.m., Cornell reportedly spoke to his wife, Vicki Cornell, telling her in a slurred voice that he may have taken “an extra Ativan or two.”

At 12:15 a.m., Vicki Cornell told police that she phoned Kirsten and asked him “to see if [Cornell] is alright because he did not sound like he is okay,” adding that he sounded “groggy and just kept saying, ‘I am just tired.’”

From The Detroit News:

Kirsten walked two doors down to Cornell’s suite, to which he had a key, but found the door latched, the report said. “(Kirsten) called security from hotel phone in hallway … stating he needs to get into (the) room to check on (the) victim,” the report said.

“Security stated they can not let him into the room because he is not registered to that room,” the report said. “At this time (Kirsten) kicked in the door with his feet and … went to the bedroom door and (the) latch had been engaged on this door also.

“(Kirsten) again called for security but could not gain access to (the) room,” the report said. “At this time (Kirsten) kicked in (the) bedroom door and found victim laying on the bathroom floor.”

Paramedics arrived at 1 a.m. but were unable to revive Cornell, and a doctor pronounced the singer dead at 1:30 am. Not long after, homicide detectives arrived on the scene to begin the investigation as another police officer phoned Vicki Cornell to inform her of husband’s death.

Cornell’s death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging Thursday afternoon by a Wayne County medical examiner. The Cornell family has since disputed that ruling in two separate statements, both of which mention Ativan.