TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — The Pierce County medical examiner’s office says a 29-year-old sheriff’s deputy died of an accidental overdose to the painkiller oxycodone he took following surgery.
The office made the ruling Monday after reviewing toxicology tests from Shandon Wright. He died March 3 at home, a day after an operation on a shoulder dislocated in August making an arrest.
Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer told The News Tribune Wright had been complaining of a cold and had never taken medication like oxycodone before. Troyer says it put Wright in respiratory failure.
Wright had been with the sheriff’s department five years. He leaves a wife and 2-year-old daughter.
