CA State Senator Urges Police to Reinvestigate Death of Gay Man

California State Sen. Scott Wiener has requested the San Francisco Police Department reinvestigate the death of gay man Jaxon Sales.

Sales, 20, died in San Francisco in March 2020. His death was ruled an accident. The medical examiner's office found his cause of death to be a result of an acute mixed drug intoxication -- having ingested a mix of GHB, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

His parents, Jim and Angie Sales, have called for further investigation into their son's death.

Last month, the couple launched a Change.org petition that's been signed by more than 40,000 people.

"Our 20-year-old son's death deserves the same investigation given to any human being, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation," they wrote on the site.

On March 1, 2020, Sales had gone to an apartment for a blind date. His parents sent him a text at 11 p.m. to ask if he was coming home for the night, and he said he was.

"Jaxon never came home from that date. Every parent's nightmare became our reality," his parents wrote.

Jim and Angie Sales were informed by police that their son had been "found naked and dead in the bed of a 41-year-old white male whom Jaxon did not know."

Sales' parents said that an official from the medical examiner's office told them that a lack of investigation was due to the high use of GHB in "the gay community."

"We believe that if Jaxon was heterosexual, both the SFPD and the SF OCME would have fully investigated the circumstances of our son's death," they wrote in the petition. "We've spent the last two years devastated, paralyzed, and grieving Jaxon's death and repeatedly asking for answers to our unanswered questions. We want the truth to what happened to Jaxon that night and to understand why he never came home."

The medical examiner's office denied that Sales's sexual orientation played a part in classifying his death as an accident, according to The Bay Area Reporter.

In a letter to the police chief and medical examiner, Wiener urged both offices to take up the Sales case again.

Wiener called out the lack of investigation if it was due to the GHB found. "If this statement was indeed made, it is highly offensive, inappropriate, and dismissive of a drug overdose from a substance at times used as a date rape drug. Additionally, the San Francisco police department reportedly chose not to investigate this death based on the [office of the chief medical examiner's] sole medical determination."

Further, Wiener questioned why another reported overdose at the same apartment wasn't also included in authorities' investigation.

While he wrote that he was not making assumptions around Sales's death, "I am, however, asking you to ensure that a complete investigation occurs."