Officials in the U.S. state of Texas have ruled that the death of three-year-old Russian adoptee Max Shatto was accidental.
Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said four doctors who reviewed the boy’s autopsy agreed Shatto’s death was “the result of an accident.”
He told RFE/RL that Shatto died from a “lacerated artery” due to blunt force trauma in his abdomen and had no drugs in his system.
Bland said the finding did not rule out that there would be charges filed in the case.
Shatto, born Maksim Kuzmin, allegedly collapsed outside his family’s home in rural Gardendale, Texas on January 21. He died later the same day at nearby hospital.
His death caused furor in Russia, where officials accused the child’s mother, Laura, of drugging and “murdering” him. Officials also used the case for justification of Moscow’s politically-charged ban on U.S. adoptions.
Bland said doctors concluded that bruises on Shatto’s body appeared to be self-inflicted, due to a mental disturbance that the child had.
The Texas-based Gladney Center, which facilitated the adoption, said in a statement it was “pleased” that the investigation had not indicated any wrongdoing on the its part.
The Russian consul general in Houston, Aleksandr Zakharov, said he wanted to see the official report from authorities before commenting.