3 people arrested, charged in connection with former One Direction singer’s death

Three people have been arrested and charged in connection to Liam Payne’s death, Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office announced on Thursday. In a statement, officials claim the three suspects engaged in “illicit conduct” and “were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics.”

Authorities determined the former One Direction singer fell off his hotel balcony on Oct. 16 in a state of “semi or total unconsciousness.” For the first time, the prosector’s office said they have ruled out “self-harm of any kind” or that a third party was responsible Payne’s fall.

In the Nov. 7 statement, the prosector’s office said a “detailed analysis of more than 800 hours of video footage” from security cameras helped lead them to the arrest of the three individuals.

One defendant who accompanied Payne “on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires” is charged with “the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death.”

A second person is a hotel employee “who must answer for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne” during the singer’s stay at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. The third deferent is “a narcotics supplier,” the statement alleged, and that person is accused selling drugs to Payne two different times on Oct. 14.

“Both were charged with the crime of supplying narcotics, two acts each,” the statement read.

Prosecutors also revealed that toxicology tests confirmed Payne was under the influence of drugs “in the moments before his death” and for at least three days leading up to the incident. He had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system.

Authorities say Payne “was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall.” Payne’s cause of death was caused by “multiple trauma” and “internal and external hemorrhage” as a result of his third-story fall from the balcony of his hotel room.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.