Tyler Honeycutt’s mother told police the late UCLA basketball star was ‘sucking laughing gas’

Former UCLA basketball player Tyler Honeycutt’s mother told police that in the hours before he died last month he had been “sucking laughing gas for six months overseas and I think it scrambled his brain,” according to footage released Tuesday as part of a Los Angeles Police Department critical incident community briefing.

In her call to 911 on July 6, Liza Stazel said in the video that Honeycutt had been using nitrous oxide. She also said her son had not eaten or slept in several days, was hallucinating and had knocked the phone out of her hands when she tried to call for help.

Stazel told officers upon their arrival at Honeycutt’s Sherman Oaks residence that the 27-year-old was holding a pistol loaded with three bullets while sitting on a bed.

Two former UCLA basketball stars die tragically, leaving questions behind »

Police made contact with Honeycutt via cellphone and told him he was not in trouble and asked him to lay down his weapon where they could see it from a window, police said. Honeycutt appeared at the window and fired a shot that struck a wall next to an officer, who returned fire.

SWAT team members entered the residence several hours later, finding Honeycutt dead from what officials ruled were self-inflicted gunshot wounds. A toxicology report is pending.