The San Diego County medical examiner’s office confirmed what police believed on Thursday, ruling that Junior Seau’s death was a suicide, and that the 20-year NFL veteran died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Seau died Wednesday morning in his home in Oceanside, California. No one was home at the time that Seau shot himself. His girlfriend found him when she arrived at the home at 9:35 a.m., and she called 911.
Tissue and organ samples were collected for toxicology tests, which can take up to 90 days.
The medical examiner’s office is awaiting a decision by the Seau family about whether it will give Seau’s brain to researchers. Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy would like to examine Seau’s brain for evidence of trauma. The Center has discovered brain trauma in most of the deceased NFL players whose brains it has studied.