Celebrity News May 05, 2016
Prince’s Death: New Details Emerge About the Man Who Called 911
Andrew Kornfeld has been identified as the man who called 911 the day that Prince was found dead at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota.
Kornfeld's family attorney William Mauzy held a press conference on Wednesday explaining why his client was at Prince's home that morning.
Kornfeld is the son of Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a prominent addiction treatment doctor and founder of Recovery Without Walls, an outpatient treatment program in Northern California.
Dr. Kornfeld couldn't make the trip to Minnesota so he arranged for Prince to meet with a local doctor, and sent Andrew, a pre-med student who works at Recovery Without Walls as a practice consultant and peer mentor, to present the star with a treatment plan.
Andrew arrived to Prince's home the morning of April 21 carrying a starter dose of buprenorphine, a controlled substance used to treat drug addiction. Mauzy said that Andrew planned to give the drug to Prince's doctor.
He explained, "Those pills were taken into possession by the Carver County Sheriff. It is my belief that the [Minnesota law] providing immunity for people who make a 911 emergency calls — to receive immunity for any medications, any controlled substances on the scene — will provide statutory immunity to Andrew."
Mauzy continued, "Andrew's purpose in being there was to describe the Recovery Without Walls program to familiarize Prince with that," Mauzy explained. "Prince could go there for pain management or any addiction issues. This is something that Andrew has done for years."
He went on to describe the scene when Andrew got to the home, saying, "When he arrived, Prince was not available. [Staff] went looking for Prince, but couldn't initially find him. The staff representatives apparently found him in an elevator unconscious. One of the staff members started screaming."
A distressed Andrew called 911, telling the dispatcher, “The person is dead here,” and later revealing, "Yes, it's Prince."
Prince's cause of death is not yet known. Toxicology reports are forthcoming. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported this week that Percocet was found in Prince's system when he died.