A 4-year-old boy has died after suffering a medical episode from possible fentanyl exposure at a New York City shelter.
Police responded to a family shelter in the 4600 block of Glenwood Road in Brooklyn shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday and found the child “having a medical episode.”
Hatzolah, a volunteer medical group, responded to the shelter and found the child “unconscious and unresponsive,” law enforcement sources told NBC New York. They administered Narcan and saw bruising on the right side of the child’s abdomen.
Emergency medical personnel asked the parents if there were any drugs or fentanyl in the place, and they responded that there was, the sources said.
The child was taken to Maimonides Medical Center in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead.
Police said that the parents of the child were being questioned, but no arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.
The nonprofit Win, which runs the shelter, said in a statement: “Win is devastated by the tragic death of this innocent child who came to reside with us in one of our shelters. We are working closely with the NYPD to support their ongoing investigation. We remain committed as ever to fostering a safe and supportive environment for all families that call a Win shelter home.”
The death of the 4-year-old recalled an incident in September 2023 in which 22-month-old Nicholas Feliz-Dominici died after ingesting fentanyl at Divino Niño, a day care center operated out of a Bronx apartment.
Three other children were exposed to the fentanyl stored at the center, but survived after medics administered Narcan.
Grei Mendez, the owner of the day care, was sentenced to 45 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to federal drug charges. Her husband Felix Herrera Garcia, 35, was also sentenced to 45 years in October after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death.
President Donald Trump has touted the fentanyl crisis as a reason for his new tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, the nation’s three largest trading partners.
In a joint address to Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said, “They’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before,” while referring to Mexico and Canada. He said the movement of the drug is “killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families.”
However, research shows the fentanyl epidemic is showing slight improvement.
From October 2023 to September 2024, the U.S. recorded 87,000 drug overdose deaths — a decrease from 114,000 the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was the lowest overdose death toll in any 12-month period since June 2020, the CDC said.
Overdose deaths first surpassed more than 100,000 in 2021, with the majority linked to synthetic opioid use.