Prince's Death Still Under Investigation

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A central figure in the Prince death investigation is the superstar's longtime friend and right-hand man, who had a cameo in the movie "Purple Rain."

 

According to a search warrant, detectives interviewed Kirk A. Johnson -- a former Prince drummer and current manager of the singer's Paisley Park estate -- following the performer's unexpected death last month.

 

The court document, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, discloses that police seized Prince Rogers Nelson's medical records from a Minneapolis-area hospital in early May. Investigators were particularly interested in files involving a family-medicine doctor who had treated Prince in the weeks before the singer was found dead April 21 in a Paisley Park elevator.

 

The warrant also reveals Johnson, 51, told detectives that Prince had gone to another local medical clinic for an illness in 2014 or 2015.

 

Despite weeks of media speculation that an addiction to prescription painkillers may have led to Prince's sudden death, authorities haven't announced how the 57-year-old artist died.

 

"I am unable to provide any comment or clarification about specifics of the investigation," Carver County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jason Kamerud told Yahoo News on Tuesday.

The singer's inner circle has also kept mum.

 

Johnson, who oversaw Prince's sprawling studios and home in Chanhassen, Minn., and was described by the Minneapolis Star Tribune as Prince's de facto bodyguard, has hired Minneapolis criminal defense attorney F. Clayton Tyler. Johnson hasn't spoken publicly about Prince's death, and Yahoo News messages to him weren't returned. Johnson is also a personal trainer at Life Time Fitness in Chanhassen but hasn't been to the gym since Prince's passing, the AP reports.

 

He did, however, send a text message to the Star Tribune on Friday. "Right now, it's just too painful to even speak," Johnson told the newspaper.

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The Star Tribune, citing unidentified sources, reports investigators are trying to determine whether opioid painkillers such as oxycodone or hydrocodone played a role in Prince's death and if they were supplied to him illegally. Last fall, the newspaper's review of state death records revealed opioid overuse now kills more Minnesotans each year than homicide.

 

A month before the singer's death, Johnson's lawyer, Tyler, warned on his website that Minnesota authorities are cracking down prescription drug abuse.

 

"Sharing your medication with a friend who is struggling with pain might be well-meaning, but under Minnesota's broad definition of 'sell,' you could be charged with felony drug sales," Tyler wrote in a blog post.

 

Tyler did not return messages seeking comment for this story.

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