Police don’t believe that Prince killed himself

Toxicology report isn’t expected to be released for a few weeks

MINNEAPOLIS— There were no signs of trauma on Prince’s body and police don’t believe that he committed suicide, an autopsy report reveals.

Prince was found dead at home in Minneapolis, Minn., Thursday.

The Carver County Sheriff’s Department is treating the death as a criminal investigation, a standard procedure given that there were no witnesses. The full results of the autopsy, including the toxicology report, are not expected for a few weeks.

Celebrity gossip website TMZ reported Friday that after Prince’s final concert performance in Georgia a few days earlier, he was on a return flight to Minneapolis when his private plane made an emergency landing in Illinois after he became ill.

Prince’s public relations team said he had been suffering from the flu.

Emergency responders gave Prince a “save shot,” presumably of naloxone, to counter the effects of a possible opioid overdose from Percocet, a powerful prescription painkiller he reportedly had been taking after hip surgery several years ago.

Because opioids can depress respiration, which is also a common effect of the flu, the use of opioids by someone who’s sick with the flu could make breathing even more difficult, said Dr. Deni Carise, chief clinical officer at Recovery Centers of America.

Prince had struggled with hip problems and childhood epilepsy.

Prince revealed in a 2009 interview with Tavis Smiley that he was “born epileptic” and had seizures when he was young. It’s unclear if his epilepsy carried into adulthood.