Florida Reverend Zachery Tims Jr. was found dead at the age of 42 in the Times Square W Hotel on Friday with what is believed to be drugs in his pocket. “What that white powdery substance is and whether it played a role in Mr. Tims’s death is still to be determined,” a law enforcement source told The Wall Street Journal. Medical examiners are awaiting toxicology results to announce the cause of death.
Tims founded the 7,000-member New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, and previously struggled with drug addiction in his native Baltimore, where he was gang-affiliated before a religious conversion just before his twentieth birthday. The pastor’s 15-year marriage ended around 2009, after he admitted to an affair with a stripper, who posted details of their romance online.
“I join many others in being saddened by the news of the death of Rev. Zachery Tims of Florida,” Al Sharpton tweeted yesterday.
