Family of Canadian actor found dead in L.A. will have to wait weeks for answers

I've posted many articles where the Pit bulls breeds, although not in this case, have been blamed for mauling people to death and been put down. They see the blood on the dogs and bite marks on the person and right away assume the dogs killed them.

Dogs are very intuitive creatures when peoples lives are at stake. They'll try to revive the person or pull them out of danger and naturally the only way they can do that is with their teeth.

It makes more sense than dogs becoming vicious suddenly overnight and this should be looked at more closely in other cases as well.

You can find this article in the Brandon Sun.

Family of Canadian actor found dead in L.A. will have to wait weeks for answers
Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP) - By all accounts, Jacob Adams was in good health and got along fabulously with the dogs he was hired to care for at the West Los Angeles home of actor Ving Rhames.

That made it all the more shocking for friends and family when they learned the Canadian screenwriter and aspiring actor had been found dead at the home on Aug. 3, his chest, arms and legs covered in blood and dog bites.

Now the Los Angeles coroner's office says it will take up to seven more weeks before toxicology results hopefully show what happened in the hours before his body was discovered by police.

Adams, 40, befriended the "Mission: Impossible" co-star on the Toronto set of the made-for-TV movie "Kojak." The two hit it off and Adams was soon hired to look after Rhames's dogs at his family's home in Brentwood, Calif.

"Ving Rhames seemed to take Jacob under his wing . . . he just kind of adopted him," said friend and fellow Toronto actor Ros Feldman.

Police initially said the death was caused by mauling, though an autopsy found neither "superficial" dog bites nor a heart attack were to blame. Police have since suggested the dogs - three hulking mastiffs and an English bulldog - may have sensed Adams was in trouble and tried to pull him toward the house.

What sort of trouble remains far from clear. The coroner's office will only say the cause of death is "deferred."
Craig Harvey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, said it takes about six to eight weeks to run the hundreds of necessary toxicology tests for drugs and poisons, which need to be verified and often repeated.

"It's not just a simple thing of pouring fluid A into beaker B and reading the results: there's a lot of science going on there," Harvey said.

Adams was born in Jamaica and came to Canada in 1979 after he was adopted by a Canadian family.

The 1991 "Sharon, Lois and Bram Christmas Special" was the actor's first break, leading to roles in TV shows like "Babylon" and "Earth: Final Conflict." He also did some stunt work and wrote the soon to be released "Animal 2," which features Rhames in the lead role.

He had been living on Rhames' property for two years.

Adams was adored on set for his easygoing attitude and sense of humour, said Feldman, who has worked with him on a variety of projects.

"The last time I spoke to him he was just over the moon, laughing and joking," she said. "He had no airs and graces, which is so nice in our business."

On Monday, Rhames issued a statement calling Adams "a dear friend" and offering condolences to the screenwriter's family. He was out of the country filming a movie at the time of the incident.

In a 2001 interview with Time magazine, the actor said he tries his characters on his pets because they "know when something's not right."

"I figure if I can fool them, then I've successfully changed my spirit."

For example, while preparing for the role of Don King in a televised movie, Rhames adopted the famous promoter's speech patterns, mannerisms and movement - and then tested it on his dogs.

"The dogs started growling at me," he said. "That's a true story."

It's possible another autopsy could be performed on Adams' body in Canada, though that would depend on the wishes of the family, Ontario Chief Coroner Dr. Barry McLellan said in an interview.

"It's based on the circumstances, but we do have legislative authority to conduct further investigation here, including an autopsy," he said.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday in Mississauga, Ont., west of Toronto.