New reports from Chicago suggest that Federal and local police were in the process of searching luggage on board the private plane 21-year-old artist Juice WRLD had been travelling on when he collapsed and suffered a fit, before he subsequently died a short time later.
Juice WRLD, real name Jarad Higgins, collapsed at the Midway Airport in Chicago and began convulsing on Sunday morning, local time. He suffered a cardiac arrest and was transported to hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
According to the Chicago Tribune, authorities and federal agents were at the airport, awaiting its arrival from Van Nuys, California. Reports suggest Juice WRLD was flying to Chicago, his home city, to attend his own 21st birthday party.
During the search, the Tribune reports that police officials recovered “41 ‘vacuum-sealed’ bags of marijuana, six bottles of prescription codeine cough syrup, two 9 mm pistols, a .40-caliber pistol, a high-capacity ammunition magazine and metal-piercing bullets.” Two men who were later identified as security staff employed by Higgins were taken into custody and charged with various weapons and ammunitions offences. The marijuana and codeine were reportedly being transported in unlabelled bags. No drug charges have been laid at this stage, however the investigation remains ongoing.
After Higgins collapsed, police officials reportedly administered Narcan to him while awaiting paramedic assistance.
After conducting an initial post-mortem yesterday, local coroner officials asserted that further studies, including “cardiac pathology, neuropathology, toxicology and histology,” needed to be conducted before determining an official cause of death.
Juice WRLD had only just recently completed a sold out tour of Australia, and was next scheduled to perform at the Rolling Loud Festival in Los Angeles this coming Saturday.
