Crowley Police responded to the 1200 block of Lurose Drive on July 19, 2022 regarding an unresponsive male.
According to authorities, upon their arrival officers located Cody Gabriel breathing but unresponsive. Officers discovered tat Gabriel may have been overdosing, which led them to administer Narcan in efforts to help.
Local ambulance responders transported Gabriel to a nearby hospital where he later died.
A video posted on social media was discovered by authorities showing Gabriel at an apartment complex outside of the city drinking a substance containing liquid Promethazine and consuming several Ecstacy pills.
That same social media video revealed the suspect, Justin Bernard, goading Gabriel into taking the liquid and handing him what was believed to be Ecstacy pills, and at one point puts the "pills" in Gabriel's mouth.
Chief Jimmy Broussard reported that Bernard was shouting obscenities', allegedly endorsing Gabriel's overdose.
Bernard was later arrested without incident on second degree murder charges and transported to the Acadia Parish Jail on a $250,000 bond
All subject are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
