Chris Cornell Police Report Reveals New Details About Musician's Suicide

A police report made public Friday revealed new details surrounding the death of Audioslave and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who died by suicide Thursday at age 52.

Shortly after finishing a show with Soundgarden at around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, Cornell was escorted to his room by his bodyguard Martin Kirsten. Kirsten reportedly helped Cornell fix his computer and then gave him two Ativan, which a lawyer for Cornell’s family confirmed he takes for anxiety.

As previously reported, the singer’s wife Vicky Cornell received a call from her husband after his show during which he was slurring and said he had taken “an extra Ativan or two.” “When we spoke after the show, I noticed he was slurring his words; he was different,” she said. “When he told me he may have taken an extra Ativan or two, I contacted security and asked that they check on him.”

A police report obtained by Detroit News revealed that Cornell told his wife multiple times, “I am just tired.”

Read: Chris Cornell Wife Vicky Karayiannis Breaks Silence On Suicide, Why It Was ‘Accidental’

According to the police report, Kirsten reportedly went to Cornell’s room at the MGM Grand in Detroit just after midnight to check on him. Kirsten had to kick in two separate doors — one to Cornell’s hotel suite and one to his bedroom door — before he found Cornell lying on the room’s bathroom floor “with blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band around [his] neck,” according to the report.

TMZ reported Friday that the Soundgarden frontman fastened the exercise band to a carabiner that was used to hang himself from the top of his hotel bathroom door. Cornell reportedly jammed the carabiner so tightly into the door frame that it left and indentation.

Read: What Is Ativan? Chris Cornell's Family Thinks Suicide May Be Drug-Related

An autopsy by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office officially determined Cornell’s cause of death to be suicide by hanging, however, a full autopsy is pending. Cornell’s family is disputing the cause of death, instead suspecting that the musician — who struggled with addiction most of his life before seeking treatment in 2002 — had suffered adverse effects from either Ativan or other substances.

“Without the results of toxicology tests, we do not know what was going on with Chris—or if any substances contributed to his demise. Chris, a recovering addict, had a prescription for Ativan and may have taken more Ativan than recommended dosages,” said Kirk Pasich, a lawyer for the family, in a statement to the Associated Press. “The family believes that if Chris took his life, he did not know what he was doing, and that drugs or other substances may have affected his actions.”