LOS ANGELES — The parents of Bobby Brown Jr., son of singer Bobby Brown, said Tuesday that they want those responsible for his accidental overdose death held responsible, and prosecutors said they are considering criminal charges.
An autopsy report revealed Monday that the 28-year-old died from the combined effects of alcohol, cocaine and the opioid fentanyl.
Brown Jr. was found dead in his Los Angeles home at age 28 on Nov. 18. At the time, authorities said only that they believed no foul play was involved.
Brown Jr.’s girlfriend, who had last seen him alive that morning, found him unresponsive on his bedroom floor and called paramedics, who declared him dead, the report says. Brown Jr. was just days shy of his 29th birthday.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Brown Jr.’s parents and their attorney emphasized the fatal dose of fentanyl in his system and its frequent unexpected presence in the street versions of other drugs.
“My family continues to mourn my son’s death,” Bobby Brown said in the statement. “This epidemic is out of control and those supplying this lethal drug should be held responsible for the death and destruction that it causes.”
Brown Jr.’s mother Kim Ward said he “associated himself with the wrong people.”
“My son is gone and those who contributed to his senseless death should be held accountable,” Ward said in the statement.
Police have presented prosecutors with a case related to the death and it is under review for possible charges, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s spokesman Greg Risling said Tuesday. He gave no further details on the suspects or the circumstances.
According to interviews with police at the scene included in the autopsy report, Brown Jr. had drank tequila, snorted cocaine and used what he believed was oxycodone before his girlfriend found him unconscious on the bedroom floor of his Los Angeles home hours later.
In many recent cases, prosecutors have charged drug dealers directly in the deaths of those they provided drugs to, not simply with selling illegal drugs.
In the 2018 accidental overdose death of rapper Mac Miller in a home just a few miles from the one where Brown Jr. died, federal prosecutors have charged three men with providing the drugs that caused his death, including pills that appeared to be oxycodone but contained fentanyl.
Brown Jr. had a history of drug and alcohol use and his death was ruled an accident, the report says.
Shortly after his son’s death, Bobby Brown released a statement asking his fans to pray for his family. The R&B legend wrote at that time that “losing my son at this point in our lives has devastated my family. There are no words to explain the pain.”
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