Coquitlam actor Logan Williams, star of TV’s The Flash, died of fentanyl overdose

The mother of Logan Williams says drugs claimed the life of the teen actor last month.

The Coquitlam native, whose TV credits included roles on Supernatural and When Calls the Heart, died on April 2, just one week shy of his 17th birthday.

In an interview with New York Post, Marlyse Williams said preliminary toxicology results indicate that Logan died of a fentanyl overdose, following a three-year struggle with addiction.

“His death is not going to be in vain,” Marlyse Williams told the Post. “He’s going to help a lot of people down the road.”

Williams was best known for playing young Barry Allen on the DC superhero series The Flash.

Grant Gustin, the show’s lead actor, paid tribute to Williams in an Instagram post last month.

“I was so impressed by not only Logan’s talent but his professionalism on set. My thoughts and prayers will be with him and his family during what is I’m sure an unimaginably difficult time for them. Please keep Logan and his family in your thoughts and prayers during what has been a strange and trying time for us all. Sending love to everyone,” wrote Gustin, who portrays the adult Barry Allen.

Marlyse Williams told the Post that her son started smoking marijuana at 13 and then moved on to harder drugs.

To help him with his addiction problem, Marlyse says she remortgaged her home to pay for an expensive treatment centre in the U.S.

She said Logan spent a month at a B.C. rehab facility last summer and had been living in a group home since then.

“I did everything humanly possible — everything a mother could do,” she said. “I did everything but handcuff him to me to try to keep him safe.”

The B.C. Coroners Service says there have been 260 suspected drug overdose deaths in B.C. this year, with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, detected in 70 per cent of them.

B.C. opioid deaths spiked in March to a level not seen since a year ago.

There were 113 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in March. It was the first time provincial overdose numbers have exceeded 100 deaths in a month since March 2019, when 117 overdose deaths were recorded.

B.C.’s provincial health officer declared a public health emergency in 2016 in response to a surge in drug-related overdoses and deaths.

Since then more than 5,000 people have died of illicit overdoses.