Liam Payne: 3 charged in One Direction singer’s death

BUENOS AIRES –

Three people have been charged in relation to One Direction singer Liam Payne’s death in a fall from his Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month, Argentine authorities said on Thursday.

The 31-year-old’s death shocked the world, and raised questions about how he had fallen.

A 911 call from a hotel employee the day Payne died warned that he had been acting aggressively and could have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

An autopsy revealed the former boy band member had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died, a prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday.

Those charged in his death include a suspected drug dealer, a hotel employee who may have provided Payne with the cocaine and a person who was close to the singer, the authorities said.

All are accused of playing a role in giving Payne the drugs. The person who was visiting with Payne is also charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death,” authorities said.

None of those charged were named.

(Reporting by Nicolas Misculin; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Bill Berkrot)