Tina Turner's Son Ike Jr. Was Arrested and Jailed Weeks Before Her Death
Ike Turner Jr. was arrested for alleged crack cocaine possession weeks before his mother Tina Turner's death. Ike Jr. was adopted and raised by rock icon, Tina Turner, when he was a child. She was married to his father for 16 years. PEOPLE Magazine reports Ike Jr., 64, was arrested on Saturday, May 6, just weeks before Tina's death on May 24.
He was charged with crack cocaine possession and tampering with evidence in Texas. Police pulled him over at a traffic light a little after midnight for an equipment violation after it was noted that his headlight or taillight was out. Following an investigation, the arresting officers seized 1.7 grams of crack cocaine and .7 grams of methamphetamine. Simultaneously, they noticed Ike Jr. attempting to consume the narcotics in his possession.
"He tried to eat the drugs before the officers could seize them from him," Capt. Q.T. Arendell of the Alvin Police Dept. said in a statement. Ike Jr.'s passenger, Jessica Salinas-Esquivel, is also being charged with possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamines).
Both of Tina's biological children – Craig and Ronnie – have died. The two children she raised with Ike have had issues throughout the years. After Tina and Ike Sr.'s divorce, Tina admitted she'd become estranged from her children (she had four in total, one biologically with Ike), and felt some guilt related to it. But ultimately, her four boys were all troubled in their own ways. And as it turns out, Ike Jr.'s lifestyle choices bear a striking resemblance to his late father, who battled drug and alcohol addiction throughout his life before his death in 2007.
A former friend and confidant, Eddy Hampton Armani, recently spoke with PEOPLE and dished on Tina's relationship with her sons. Christmas of 1982, Armani told the publication that the "Private Dancer" called him in a panic because she wanted to decorate her house for her family. "I need some help," Armani recalls Tina told him. She also wanted to cook dinner for the now-adult kids. On Christmas Eve, with Arami's help, they cooked a feast. Tina called him the next day with heartbreaking news: no one had shown up on Christmas. He rushed to her side.
"Tina wasn't a crybaby. She never cried in front of people. But you could feel her pain when they didn't show up or tell her. It really hurt her. I remember her saying, 'I guess I wasn't a good mother,'" she reporetdly said.
By 1989, Tina had also cut off her children financially. "I'm still there for the boys, but I'm not going to let them use me," she later told Australia's TV Week.