The adult son of famed author Paul Auster admitted to giving his 10-month-old baby Narcan after a prosecutor said the infant died because it had ingested enough heroin and fentanyl to ‘render an adult unconscious.’
Daniel Auster, 44, said he woke up on November 1 to see daughter Ruby’s ‘lips blue and eyes stiff’ and tried to save her using the opioid overdose treatment. Officers later arrived to find the baby lifeless, transporting her to a local hospital before doctors there pronounced her dead.
He said he had been using heroin that day and gave the baby the treatment ‘in case I f–ked up’ according to Assistant DA Tien Tran, who spoke at Daniel’s arraignment in Brooklyn Sunday.
Auster faces charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and child endangerment in connection with her death.
Tran said that Ruby was found with the alarming amount of fentanyl and heroin in her body, though police have yet to determine how they got in her system.
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Daniel Auster also admitted to authorities that he kept ‘glassine packets of heroin’ in his bathroom.
Daniel Auster’s daughter, Ruby (pictured above), was found lifeless in his Park Slope home
In many of the photos, Auster can be seen posing with his little girl, or cuddling her
Daniel’s father, Paul Auster, is probably America’s best-known postmodern novelist known for The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions and Moon Palace, but the pair’s relationship appears to be estranged
An autopsy conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found Ruby died of acute intoxication caused by the combined effects of fentanyl and heroin.
The case was later ruled a homicide after police conferred with the Kings County District Attorney’s office.
Auster is currently awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
His Instagram page is full of pictures of his daughter and her mother, and in many of the photos he can be seen posing with his little girl, or cuddling her.
Daniel Auster, 44, was arrested on Friday night on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide
Auster’s Instagram page is full of pictures of his daughter and her mother
Daniel Auster was taking care of his 10-month-old daughter Ruby at his Park Slope home when 911 was called
It is not the first time Daniel Auster has had a brush with the law.
During his teenage years, Daniel started going to clubs in New York City and became heavily involved with drugs, according to The New Yorker.
At the age of 18, in 1996, when he was eighteen, Daniel was present in the apartment when a drug dealer by the name of Andre ‘Angel’ Melendez was famously murdered by Club Kid Killer’ Michael Alig, who was a former nightclub promoter, and his roommate, Robert Riggs.
Daniel was given $3,000 of Melendez’s money in exchange for his silence.
He later pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and was given five years probation.
Club Kid Killer’ Michael Alig, who was a former nightclub promoter is pictured. On Christmas Eve, 2020, Alig died from an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 54
Daniel Auster is pictured in a photo with his father Paul, in a shot from his teenage years
Daniel is pictured with his father as a young boy in a touching photo posted to his Instagram, entitled ‘Me and pops’
The troubled son of New York author Paul Auster, Daniel, has been charged in relation to his infant daughter’s drug overdose death
Daniel would regularly post photos of his wife and daughter, Ruby, before her death last year
The trio dressed up for Halloween in a scene from the Wizard of Oz with Daniel as the heartless Tin Man and his wife as Dorothy
He also has a string of other arrests including several drug possession in 2008 and 2010.
In 2009 he was charged with petit larceny and possession of stolen property.
Daniel’s father, Paul Auster, is probably America’s best-known postmodern novelist known for The New York Trilogy, The Book of Illusions and Moon Palace, but the pair’s relationship appears to be estranged.
Daniel’s mother, Paul Auster’s first wife, is writer Lydia Davis.
During Auster’s 1995 film, Smoke, which starred Harvey Keitel and William Hurt, about the lives of people who frequented a Brooklyn tobacconist shop, Paul’s son Daniel played the role of a book thief.
Paul Auster’s second wife Siri Hustvedt, left, who is also a writer, never speak about their stepson, Daniel. The pair are pictured in 2016
Although real-world contact between Daniel and his father appear to be non-existent, Auster has written Daniel into his work.
In his 2004 novel, Oracle Night, the book is narrated by a writer called Trause whose son is a drug addict who terrorizes his stepmother.
During a 2006 Guardian interview, Paul Auster’s second wife Siri Hustvedt who is also a writer, declined to speak about her stepson.
‘Yes. You know, I’m not going to talk about any of that, no. No.’ she said with her eyes beginning to water.
‘You know, I am married to a writer, and this – writing – is an odd enterprise. It’s something we both support very strongly. I’ve always been behind Paul, and he’s always been behind me. I have a very strong family.’
It appears that the family deal with Daniel’s troubled past and uncertain present by writing about him in their own fiction.
During Auster’s 1995 film, Smoke, which starred Harvey Keitel and William Hurt, about the lives of people who frequented a Brooklyn tobacconist shop, Paul’s son Daniel played the role of a book thief, pictured center, in a scene from the film