'Victim of a Terrible Mishap': Family of Man Who Died after Merriweather Show

The family of a 20-year-old who died after attending an electronic music festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion says he unknowingly drank water that contained drugs, according to NBC News.

Tyler Fox Viscardi, 20, a junior at the University of Maryland from Raleigh, NC, was attending the Mad Decent Block Party Friday night when he began exhibiting “concerning behavior” that prompted police and subsequently paramedics to respond, according to University of Maryland newspaper The Diamondback.

Viscardi’s sister reportedly said that her brother unknowingly drank water that contained drugs.

“According to his close college friend who was with him, the afternoon was hot and he drank water that was given to him by others who were in the area. We believe that this contained a substance, unbeknownst to him, to which he had a toxic reaction,” according to a statement from Viscardi’s sister, which was published by the ABC affiliate in Raleigh-Durham, NC.

The 20-year-old man who was attending the University of Maryland in College Park was described by his friends as ”a wonderful human beingwho made us all smile” and the ” funniest kid I ever met.”

“He was the victim of a terrible mishap,” the family told WJZ.

The operator of Merriweather, Seth Hurwitz, said the situation was “horribly sad,” according to a statement obtained by NBC. “This particular type of incident is not the problem of those who should have known better—it’s the problem of those too young to believe it could happen to them,” Hurwitz said.

The Howard County Police Department said its officers think MDMA aka Molly, the main ingredient in ecstasy, was the drug of choice at the festival, where 20 people were hospitalized with drug-related illnesses.

In addition to Viscardi, a 17-year-old from Woodbridge, VA, also died from what was suspected to be a drug-related reaction, police said.

According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, it will be weeks until the toxicology reports are complete.

Credit: ABC Raleigh-Durham screenshot

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