An officer with the Toronto Police Service's drug squad died of a fentanyl overdose earlier this year, prompting police to conduct an investigation.

Const. Michael Thompson was found at his Durham Region home in medical distress on April 10, 2017.

He was rushed to hospital, where he died three days later.

In a statement released Thursday, Acting Chief Jim Ramer confirmed that Thompson, 37, died from a fentanyl overdose.

According to Ramer, the amount of fentanyl found in his system was “too large to have been caused by mere contact with that drug.”

An investigation has been launched into the circumstances surrounding the officer’s death but police say “many questions remain unanswered.”

“We have questions such as where did Michael obtain the drugs that he took but those are questions that we may never have answers to,” police spokesperson Meaghan Gray told CP24 on Thursday afternoon. “Michael was a member of the drug squad so he could have gotten the drugs from the unit itself or got them at the street level.”

Thompson joined the Toronto Police Service in 2006 and was assigned to the drug squad in 2014.

Gray said that Thompson was a “professional and dedicated police officer who was well respected by his colleagues.”

She said that police have notified the Crown in upcoming cases that Thompson was involved with about his death and the circumstances surrounding it. The fate of those cases is not immediately clear.

“We had to disclose Michael’s death and the reason for that death to the crown as part of disclosure process. There are cases that Michael was involved in that are coming forward through the justice system as early as next Monday. The Crown will have to make a decision as to how to proceed or not. I don’t know what that decision will be nor do I know how many other cases there are,” Gray said,

In his statement, Ramer said that the wellness of members of the TPS is a “significant priority” for the organization.

He said that while there are many resources available to TPS employees to help them deal with various personal issues, he noted that the service needs to “better understand if we can provide additional support to members.”

Meanwhile, in a statement issued late Thursday afternoon Mayor John Tory offered his condolences “on behalf of the people of Toronto” and expressed his support for a review of whether or not additional supports could be provided to TPS members.

“I understand that Constable Thompson's death on April 10 shocked the service and sparked an ongoing investigation into the death itself and surrounding circumstances. I support the service reviewing whether it can provide additional support to its members for their wellness,” he said.