Police were called to the Chilkoot Trail Inn on the morning of Aug. 30, 2008, after staff reported that Grant McLeod was wielding a syringe. McLeod, 39, went into medical distress as police tried to arrest him. He died later that morning. (CBC)

A Yukon coroner's inquest into the 2008 death of a Whitehorse man who died following a police altercation ended Friday with testimony from an RCMP expert who said officers acted properly, for most part, when arresting the man.

Const. Steven Henderson testified Thursday and Friday at the inquest into the death of Grant McLeod, 39, who died after a struggle with Whitehorse RCMP at a local hotel on Aug. 30, 2008.

Officers who tried to arrest McLeod, who was reported to be wielding a syringe at the Chilkoot Trail Inn, testified earlier this week that McLeod was very strong and resisted arrest upstairs at the hotel.

One officer told the inquest jury that she used a carotid choke hold in an attempt to to subdue McLeod, but was unsuccessful. Another officer tripped McLeod and tried to get control of his arm.

Henderson, an RCMP expert on the use of force, testified late Thursday that the officers made the right decisions given McLeod's resistance and strength, as well as the tight confines of the hotel hallway they were in.

However, Henderson said Friday that police did one thing wrong: putting a knee on the head of someone they're trying to handcuff is not an approved procedure, he said.

McLeod had lethal amounts of cocaine in his system when he died, according to testimony Thursday from a toxicologist and a forensic pathologist.

The pathologist told the jury that McLeod's altercation with the RCMP may have contributed to his death, but the main cause would still have been the cocaine overdose.

Coroner's inquests are required when a person dies while in police custody.

The three men and three women on the inquest jury must now decide whether McLeod's death was a homicide or accidental and unnatural, as well as determine what factors may have contributed to the death.

The jury also has the option of making recommendations on how to avoid similar deaths in the future.