Actor Ving Rhames says Jacob Adams, the man who was found dead at his Brentwood, Calif., home earlier this month, may have suffered an aneurysm, not a fatal mauling by his two Bullmastiffs, as was first suspected by police.
“There was such a lack of blood at the scene,” Rhames told People magazine. “They think possibly an aneurysm in the brain.”
The Los Angeles county medical examiner said that Adams had bite abrasions and lacerations around his arms and legs, but no bites near his face or neck, as would be expected during a lethal animal attack.
The “Mission Impossible” actor told People he thinks the dogs may have tried to come to Adams’ aid by trying to pull him over or take him back to the house.
Rhames says he met Adams, a Canadian actor and screenwriter, on a film set in Canada and later hired him to live at his home and care for his dogs, which include three Bullmastiffs and an English Bulldog.
Rhames says he wanted to “set the record straight” about the death, adding that Adams was more like “a member of the family” than “a caretaker.”
The medical examiner said an exact cause of death will be known in six weeks pending the results of a toxicology report.