Police call heroin death a homicide

Months after his death, the Memphis Police Department has named the victim of a heroin-related death as the city's 183rd homicide.

According to MPD spokesman Louis Brownlee, police responded to the Woodchase Apartments in the 8000 block of Trinity Mills Road at 1:12 a.m. on March 29, where they found Sean Heywood dead.

Heywood, 33, was found lying on a bathroom floor with a hypodermic needle and spoon, which police said was evidence of heroin usage.

As of Sept. 15, there have been more than 50 heroin and opioid-related deaths in Memphis and Shelby County, according to the District Attorney General's office.

Over the last five years, the number of heroin-related deaths has increased nearly 800 percent from nine in 2011 to 80 in 2015.