Aaron Hernandez has committed suicide in prison, officials say.
The former NFL star and convicted murderer was found dead in his cell at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts on Wednesday morning.
The state’s Department of Correction confirmed Hernandez, who was 27, was in a “single cell in a general population unit” where he hanged himself.
He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead on the same morning his former team the New England Patriots attended a ceremony at the White House.
Suicide: Former NFL star and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez has been found dead in his prison cell at the age of 27 |Â Bizu/WENN.com
Hernandez’s lawyer Jose Baez said he thinks it unlikely Hernandez would kill himself, and his former agent Brian Murphy tweeted, “Absolutely no chance he took his own life. Chico was not a saint, but my family and I loved him and he would never take his own life.
Hernandez was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2013.
Lloyd was a semi-professional football player who had been dating Shaneah, the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee Shayanna (who he shared four-year-old Avielle with), at the time of the killing.
Hernandez’s death comes five days after he was acquitted for the double homicide of two men killed in a 2012 drive-by shooting.
