DMX performs at The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards 2001 at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach, Florida. 8/20/01 Photo by Scott Gries/ImageDirect
YONKERS, N.Y. — First responders saved DMX’s life after the rapper was found lifeless outside a hotel on Monday night.
Yonkers police and Empress Ambulance personnel responded, said Detective Lt. Patrick McCormack, who would not identify the man.
“Basically it was an excellent job by our ESU officers,” McCormack said. “They saved this individual’s life.”
Hari Shukla, a manager at the Ramada Inn, confirmed that DMX, whose legal name is Earl Simmons, had a medical issue last night at the property. He said DMX had returned to the hotel Tuesday morning.
The rapper’s attorney, Murray Richman, confirmed to The Journal News Tuesday that Simmons is out of the hospital and said the rapper was doing fine.
“The police did a wonderful job,” Richman said.
McCormack said police rushed to the hotel at 6:22 p.m. after receiving a 911 call about an unresponsive man in the parking lot. A witness told police that the man may have ingested some substance before falling to the ground.
The 45-year-old man, who McCormack would only identify as a Mount Kisco resident, was on the ground next to a parked car in a “lifeless condition” with no pulse, McCormack said.
The man was not breathing, so officers from the Emergency Services Unit performed CPR and administered air through a bag valve mask, McCormack said. About a minute later the man began breathing slowly.
McCormack said Empress personnel then arrived and gave the man Narcan, which is typically used to reverse the effects of heroin and opiate-based prescription drugs, such as oxycodone.
The man was semi-conscious as he was taken to a local hospital, where he was expected to survive, McCormack said.
He said no drugs were found and no criminal charges have been filed against anyone at the scene.
Richman, the rapper’s lawyer, said Simmons has asthma and believes he may have had an asthma attack. Asked if Simmons told him whether he had taken any drugs Monday night, the lawyer replied, “No comment.”
Simmons has made headlines recently in Westchester after a series of arrest warrants were issued in connection with an ongoing Family Court divorce and child-support case. His lawyer said at the latest court hearing, in December, that the rapper was on tour trying to earn a living and meet his child-support obligations, chalking up his failure to appear in court to a misunderstanding..
Simmons had other legal troubles in 2015 as well. He was accused of robbery at a Newark gas station after a performance in April, and was sentenced to six months in a Buffalo jail in July for failing to pay $400,000 in child support. He was released in September.
He also made an appearance on an ABC sitcom, Fresh off the Boat, in December.
