According to officials, Dax Tejera, an executive producer of This Week on ABC who died in December, choked to death while intoxicated.
Tejera, 37, died on December 23 of “asphyxia due to obstruction of airway by food bolus complicating acute alcohol intoxication,” according to the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
According to the office, the death was unintentional.
According to an earlier memo from ABC News president Kim Godwin shared with staff in December, Tejera died of a heart attack.
Tejera is survived by his wife, Veronica Tejera, 33, and their two children, Sofia, two, and Ella, seven months.
On the same night Tejera died, officers were called to the hotel where he and Veronica were staying near Grand Central Terminal because there were unattended children.
Veronica was arrested for two counts of “acting in a manner injurious to a child,” the New York Police Department’s Deputy Commissioner Public Information Office.
The agency says the two young girls were left alone inside a hotel room for an extended period.
However, Veronica spoke to Entertainment Tonight about the incident last month.
In a statement, the mother of two said she made a “poor decision” leaving the children alone.
“When Dax collapsed on December 23rd, I accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital. I asked both a close friend and my parents to rush to my children’s hotel room to attend to them as I monitored them by camera. The hotel would not allow my friend in and instead called the NYPD,” the statement said. “We had two cameras trained on my children as they slept, and I monitored them closely in the time I was away from them. While the girls were unharmed, I realize that it was a poor decision.”
“Our family has suffered a terrible tragedy. I respectfully ask for privacy while my children and I mourn Dax’s death,” Veronica added.
Tejera served as a producer on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Tejera has transformed the once-struggling political broadcast into a Sunday morning sensation in the nearly three years since taking over the show.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tejera’s position at the program began just before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, three years after he joined ABC News as a senior producer in 2017. He previously worked as an executive producer for Jorge Ramos’ Fusion show and as a producer at MSNBC.
“Despite his age, he was already one of the most talented news producers in America,” former Univision anchor Jorge Ramos previously told PEOPLE. “Nothing appeared to be impossible for him.”