LOS ANGELES (AP) – The parents of Bobby Brown Jr., the son of singer Bobby Brown, said Tuesday that they want those responsible for his accidental overdose death to be held accountable, and prosecutors said they are considering criminal charges.
In an autopsy report released Monday, the Los Angeles coroner said Brown Jr., 28, died on Nov. 18 from the combined effects of cocaine, alcohol and opioid fentanyl.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Brown Jr.’s parents and their lawyer pointed out the fatal dose of fentanyl in his system and its unexpected frequent presence in street versions of other drugs.
“My family continues to mourn the death of my son,” Bobby Brown said in a statement. “This epidemic is out of control and those who provide this lethal drug should be held responsible for the death and destruction it causes.”
Brown Jr.’s mother, Kim Ward, said she “associated with the wrong people.”
“My son has disappeared and those who contributed to his senseless death should be held accountable,” Ward said in a statement.
Police have filed a death case with prosecutors and are being investigated for possible charges, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s spokesman Greg Risling said Tuesday. He did not give further details about the suspects or circumstances.
According to interviews with police officers at the scene, included in the autopsy report, Brown Jr. had been drinking tequila, sniffing cocaine and using what he thought was oxycodone before his girlfriend found him unconscious on the bedroom floor of his Los Angeles home. later.
In many recent cases, prosecutors have directly blamed drug traffickers in connection with the deaths of those to whom they provided drugs, not just for selling illegal drugs.
In the accidental overdose death of rapper Mac Miller in 2018 in a house just a few miles from where Brown Jr. died, federal prosecutors accused three men of supplying the drugs that caused his death, including pills that appeared to be oxycodone, but containing fentanyl.
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