A 22-year-old student from Honolulu who was found unconscious and severely injured next to a set of railroad tracks in California said he did not jump from the train as suggested by the train company.

Aaron Salazar was found by the tracks near Truckee, Calif., on May 15 and had been in a coma for months. He was released in November from a Denver rehabilitation hospital where he had been recovering from spinal and brain injuries.

“I wanted to thank everybody for the love and support and the prayers and the letters,” he said in a video posted on Facebook, his voice noticeably slurred from his injuries. “I want you all to know I did not jump off the train. I would never, ever try to kill myself.”

Salazar, a Portland State University economics major and 2015 Kaiser High School graduate, was returning to Portland, Ore., from Denver on an Amtrak train after visiting his father in Colorado.

His cousin Sonia Trujillo, a spokeswoman for the family, said his doctors told his family he can’t remember the events of that day because of his brain injuries.

“Right now his brain is protecting him,” she said. “We’re hopeful that he’ll remember. But he was very adamant when he found out what was being said about him. ‘I would never ever try to kill myself. I was happy.’ ”

She said he cannot recall riding the train or visiting Colorado.

His immediate family moved from Honolulu to Colorado, where he has been undergoing rehabilitation at Craig Hospital. He is currently an outpatient.

Salazar’s maternal grandmother, Angel Mathieu of Hawaii Kai, said he has made amazing progress.

“You never stopped fighting, ever,” she wrote him. “Keep it up. I am so proud of you. You are my hero.”

He reportedly texted Mathieu prior to being found unconscious that he was going to have a long layover in Sacramento, and planned to have lunch and explore the city with a new friend.

His family believes Salazar, who is gay, may have been the victim of a hate crime. He sustained suspicious burns and blistering to his thighs and groin area, but there were no tears to his jeans, they said, an indication that the injuries were not caused by a fall.

In addition to injuries to his brain stem, ribs and abdomen, he also sustained a spinal fracture, a broken pelvis and a broken nose.

His parents said in May that the Amtrak Police Department, which took over the investigation from local police, has investigated it only as a suicide attempt.

Trujillo said she visited the Truckee police, who showed her where he was found.

“I believe somebody hurt him,” she said. “His head was right next to the track.”

Because of the position of his body (head closest to tracks and feet farthest from the tracks), if the allegation he jumped from the train is true, “then he would have had to have jumped backwards, which doesn’t make sense,” she added.

She said the police report she obtained shows his body was perpendicular to the tracks. He had an egg-size, purple, swollen area above his right eye and dried blood on his face, and the back of his head was saturated in blood.

The Amtrak Police chief said in May that a fall from a moving train would cause significant injuries and that Salazar interacted with passengers, crew and friends, who said he shared he had a number of life concerns and challenges.

Amtrak responded this morning to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s request on Thursday for comment in an email, saying: “We are glad Aaron is improving and look forward to talking with him and any other witnesses as part of the investigation.”

Michael Mathieu said there was no way his grandson would commit suicide.

“He is so likable, so happy in life,” he said. “He was doing well in school. No way he was hurting himself. He wasn’t romantically involved with someone, had no financial problems.”

Mathieu said he reported the matter to the Honolulu FBI and that the FBI had collected a DNA sample from Salazar.

A Honolulu FBI spokesman said Thursday its Sacramento office is not involved in the case, although it may have assisted with the DNA testing.