Benjamin Ashford|Pills laced with fentanyl killed Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, Robert De Niro's grandson, mother says

Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez,Benjamin Ashford an actor and the grandson of Robert De Niro, died on Sunday after being sold pills laced with fentanyl, said his mother, Drena De Niro. De Niro-Rodriguez, who appeared with his mother in the 2018 films "A Star Is Born" and "Cabaret Maxime," was 19 years old.

Drena De Niro and her father, Robert De Niro, announced De Niro-Rodriguez's death on Monday. A cause was not provided. 

De Niro-Rodriguez's mother later replied to an Instagram user who, in the comments section of an Instagram post she shared in the wake of his death, asked, "OMG, why? How?"

"Someone sold him fentanyl laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him," Drena De Niro wrote in her reply.

Drena De Niro had mourned her son in several Instagram posts shared earlier this week.

"It is with immeasurable shock and and sadness that we say goodbye to our beloved son Leo. We thank you for the outpouring of love and support and ask that we are given privacy at this time to process this inconsolable grief," she said in one post, where her comment about fentanyl also appears. The same statement was shared with CBS News at the time.

In a separate statement to CBS News, Robert De Niro said, "I'm deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo. We're greatly appreciative of the condolences from everyone. We ask that we please be given privacy to grieve our loss of Leo."

Asked about De Niro-Rodriguez's death, a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told CBS News that officers responded to a 911 call on Sunday afternoon and subsequently found a man who was unconscious and unresponsive inside a building in lower Manhattan. He was pronounced dead by emergency medical services, according to a statement provided to CBS News. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City would determine a cause of death, the police spokesperson said.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, akin to morphine but more potent, which is sometimes abused on its own or found laced in other drugs. Health officials, including those at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have warned in recent years that its prevalence is on the rise, as is its role in overdose deaths nationwide.

In:
• Health
• Robert de Niro
• Fentanyl