[ad_1]
A man and a woman were arrested on murder charges after a baby died and three other children were hospitalized following exposure to opioids at a Bronx daycare on Friday, police said.
In addition to the murder charges, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, and Grei Mendez, 36, were arrested Saturday night on multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter, assault, criminal possession of a controlled substance and narcotic and endangering child’s well-being after 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici died and three other children were hospitalized after being exposed to fentanyl at a Bronx daycare.
Brito and Mendez’s relationship with the daycare was not immediately evident and police did not immediately respond to a question seeking clarification.
It was also not immediately clear if they have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
A spokesperson for the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not immediately respond to a question Sunday morning about Nicholas’ death.
Police said the 911 call came in shortly after 2:40 p.m. Friday. Officers discovered Dominici unresponsive and unresponsive, and upon arrival he was pronounced dead at Montefiore Medical Center.
Officers also found a 2-year-old boy and an 8-month-old girl unresponsive, who were also transported to Montefiore; The boy is in critical condition and the girl is stable, police said.
A third child, a 2-year-old boy, was also hospitalized at BronxCare Health System, where he is in stable condition, police said.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters that the third child’s mother took him to the hospital herself after picking him up from daycare around 12:15 p.m. that day and noticing that he was “acting lethargic and unresponsive” once they returned home. At the hospital, staff administered Narcan, the antidote to opioid overdose, to save the boy’s life, Kenny said.
Kenny added that first responders also administered Narcan to the three children they found at the daycare.
While executing a search warrant at the daycare, NYPD officials found a “kilo press,” which Kenny described as an item “commonly used by drug dealers when packaging large quantities of drugs.”
The daycare was licensed by the state and was last inspected by Department of Health and Mental Hygiene officials on Sept. 9, according to Kenny and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, who added that no violations were found. at that moment. and that it was a surprise inspection of which daycare officials received no prior notice.
Vasan added that the daycare was a home-based center that opened in January and had two routine inspections from the beginning to obtain its license.
The investigation is ongoing, Kenny added.
Mayor Eric Adams called the tragedy “a real wake-up call for people who have opioids or fentanyl in their homes.”
“Mere contact is deadly for an adult and extremely deadly for a child,” he added.
A study published earlier this year in the journal Pediatrics found that opioids were the substance that most commonly contributed to poisoning deaths in children ages 5 and younger, and accounted for more than 47% of poisoning deaths among children ages 5 and younger. that age group between 2005 and 2018, or 346 of 731 total deaths reported to the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention. The study’s lead author said signs of opioid poisoning in young children include slow, shallow breathing, constricted pupils and a limp or unresponsive appearance.
Narcan became available without a prescription earlier this month, in a move that advocates hope will help curb the country’s worsening opioid epidemic, which led to more than 107,000 overdose deaths, an all-time high, in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a 24/7 national helpline for people with substance abuse problems and their families. You can contact the hotline, which offers assistance in English and Spanish, at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). To find behavioral health treatment services, visit SAMHSA website.