A medical examiner in Texas said Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ cause of death was an accidental overdose.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office said that he had fentanyl and oxycodone in his system, along with alcohol, USA Today and other news outlets reported on Aug. 30.
Skaggs, 27, was found dead in his hotel room in Dallas on July 1 before the Angels were slated to face off against the Texas Rangers for a four-game stretch.
On Friday, his family issued a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
“We are heartbroken to learn that the passing of our beloved Tyler was the result of a combination of dangerous drugs and alcohol,” the statement read. “That is completely out of character for someone who worked so hard to become a Major League baseball player and had a very promising future in the game he loved so much.”
The family also expressed thanks to the police officers working on his case.
“We are grateful for the work of the detectives in the Southlake Police Department and their ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding Tyler’s death. We were shocked to learn that it may involve an employee of the Los Angeles Angels. We will not rest until we learn the truth about how Tyler came into possession of these narcotics, including who supplied them. To that end, we have hired attorney Rusty Hardin to assist us,” the family said.
Hardin, the attorney, told the LA Times that at this point, it’s “way too early” to know if the family is willing to pursue legal action.
“I think the thing to keep in mind is they’re just still so devastated, both the wife and the family, about this young man’s death, and they just want to know what happened and how it happened,” Hardin told the paper. “We’re going to want to know how it came about that those drugs were ingested and whether or not others are responsible for what happened.”
US Imposes Sanctions on Three Chinese Accused of Fentanyl Trafficking
The U.S. Treasury on Aug. 21 imposed sanctions on three Chinese men accused of illegally trafficking fentanyl, acting three weeks after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of reneging on pledges to stem a flood of the highly addictive synthetic opioid into the United States.
The trio included a father and son indicted in Ohio last year on charges of producing and smuggling fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances. The third man was indicted on similar charges in Mississippi in 2017.
The trafficking operations the three allegedly run “are directly contributing to the crisis of opioid addiction, overdoses, and death in the United States,” Under Secretary of the Treasury Sigal Mandelker charged in a statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
