MINNEAPOLIS _ Carver County Attorney Mark Metz has called a news conference for Thursday morning to announce his decision on whether to charge anyone in connection with the death of Prince Rogers Nelson.
Prince's body was found April 21, 2016, in an elevator at Paisley Park, his Chanhassen, Minn., recording studio. The medical examiner found he had died of a massive overdose of fentanyl. The Star Tribune first reported that pills marked as prescription painkillers seized from the death scene were actually found to contain fentanyl.
Just six days before his death he fell ill and passed out on a plane while returning to the Twin Cities from a concert in Atlanta. Prince's private plane made an emergency stop in Moline, Ill. Paramedics scrambled to revive him on the tarmac, and he recovered after two shots of naloxone, an overdose antidote increasingly being used and often referred to by its brand name Narcan.
Prince's close friend and associate Kirk Johnson told doctors in Moline that Prince may have taken Percocet, according to affidavits filed in the death investigation. Prince was documented as suffering from an opiate overdose, but the musician refused treatment at the hospital. Later, at a meeting with medical professionals "to assess and address" health concerns, Prince admitted to taking one or two "pain pills" that night.
Carver County and federal investigators have conducted interviews far and wide, and have pored over cellphone records and email accounts. To date, no one has been charged or publicly implicated in his death.
Metz said in a news release Wednesday that he would explain the "legal status of these matters" but will take no questions.
