Michael Okay. Williams’s nephew mirrored on the horror of discovering his uncle useless from a drug overdose.
On Wednesday’s Pink Desk Speak, Dominic Dupont spoke for the primary time concerning the tragic demise of The Wire, Love Craft and Boardwalk Empire star final 12 months at age 54. The episode was concerning the risks of fentanyl.
“I feel plenty of what occurred — what I noticed on September sixth — I am nonetheless processing,” Dupont informed Jada Pinkett Smith and her co-hosts. “Michael was a tremendous human being.”
He mentioned he reached out to Williams the evening earlier than he discovered him deceased at his Brooklyn penthouse and have become involved when he did not hear again, understanding Williams had a piece obligation the following day.
He and his spouse “made the choice [to] go to his home,” he recalled. “I went upstairs, opened up his door and it was quiet,” which was worrisome as a result of “Michael all the time performed music.”
“I caught my head in,” he continued, “I mentioned, ‘Uncle Mike, are you in right here?’ And I noticed him deceased.”
Dupont known as 911 instantly and the operator requested if he needed instruction on doing chest compressions to revive him.
“I mentioned, ‘I am telling you he is deceased. He is gone. He is chilly,'” he replied.
He known as Williams’s publicist who speculated that the media would pay money for the information throughout the hour. Dupont mentioned he seemed out Williams’s window and “noticed all of the reporters” already gathering.
Williams had battled dependancy, which he had been candid about throughout his profession, however Dupont mentioned he “was doing nicely” earlier than the relapse.
“He was engaged on a e-book. It didn’t seem to me that Mike was sliding again into dependancy,” he mentioned.
Dupont, who was mentored by Williams, mentioned, “Mike did not seem like overwhelmed or coping with any main points” over the previous 5 years, “however Michael additionally labored actually arduous to not have the issues that he was going by weigh on different individuals. And he was an actor, proper? I imply, you possibly can idiot individuals. You’ll be able to persuade individuals that you just’re okay.”
That mentioned, “I am optimistic that he wouldn’t have knowingly taken fentanyl,” he mentioned. “I do know that. I do know that like I do know my first identify.”
He mentioned “fentanyl discovering its approach into our communities is the explanation why I do know Michael would need me right here. An enormous a part of what my life entails now’s honoring his legacy … Michael believed we do not sit again and simply have a look at issues collapse and simply turn into complacent. If we do, we’re complicit. We’ve to work arduous to make individuals conscious of what’s occurring in order that different individuals do not should really feel the kind of ache I’ve felt.”
Dupont additionally shared that he’s dwelling with Michael’s 94-year-old mother, saying it is made the grieving course of a bit of extra “tolerable.”
In February, 4 males have been arrested in connection to Williams’s demise. Hector Robles, Luis Cruz, Carlos Macci and Irvin Cartagena have been every charged with narcotics conspiracy for distributing the fentanyl-laced heroin that in the end killed the star. Surveillance video launched by investigators appeared to indicate Cartagena handing Williams the lethal medicine in the future earlier than the star’s physique was discovered.
Police officers mentioned that when Williams was discovered on Sept. 6. there was what gave the impression to be drug paraphernalia within the house and heroin on the kitchen desk.