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Mass. State Police are investigating Aaron Hernandez’s hanging

Police guard the entrance of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, Wednesday, April 19, 2017, in Shirley. Elise Amendola/AP

Massachusetts state police say they have launched an investigation into former NFL star Aaron Hernandez’s death by hanging in prison.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early, Jr., says detectives assigned to his office and the Department of Correction are investigating Hernandez’s death.

Authorities say Hernandez used a bedsheet to hang himself early Wednesday at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts.

Early says Massachusetts’ chief medical examiner is conducting an autopsy in Boston to determine the exact cause and manner of death.

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn prosecuted Hernandez in the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Quinn calls Hernandez’s death ‘‘a shocking and sad end to a very tragic series of events that has negatively impacted a number of families.’’