The son of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been found dead of a possible drug overdose in Malibu.
Scott Ashley Sterling, 32, was found dead shortly after 11:30 p.m. yesterday at a home on Pacific Coast Highway, said Los Angeles County coroner’s Lt. Larry Dietz says 32-year-old
A county Sheriff’s Department statement confirmed that Sterling is the son of the Clippers owner.
Dietz says the death appears to be accidental and it’s being investigated as a possible drug overdose. An autopsy will determine the exact cause of death.
Messages left for Sterling and a Clippers representative weren’t immediately returned.
The younger Sterling made headlines in 1999 when, at age 19, he blasted a friend with a shotgun. Philip Scheid, then 19, survived buckshot that hit him in the back of his legs.
Scott Sterling claimed the shooting was self-defense, while Beverly Hills cops insisted he should be prosecuted.
“No rational person would entertain the possibility of his story being true,” Beverly Hills police Det. Sgt. Jack Douglas wrote in a memo Los Angeles prosecutors back then.
Douglas called the self-defense claim “preposterous.”
The DA declined to press charges against the younger Sterling.
The Clippers, long the laughing stock of basketball, are having the best season in franchise history.
Donald Sterling’s squad lost, 92-78, at Denver last night, breaking a 17-game winning streak. The Clippers still lead the Pacific Division at 25-7.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.