A 4-year-old boy died on Tuesday after he was found near fentanyl in a Brooklyn homeless shelter, according to a senior law enforcement official.
The police responded to a 911 call on Tuesday morning at the shelter where the boy was found, on Glenwood Road in the East Flatbush neighborhood, the official said. Emergency medical workers treated the boy with Narcan, an overdose-reversing medication, according to the official. The child was then taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead, the police said.
No arrests have been made, the official said, and the authorities are investigating whether drugs played a role in the child’s death.
The New York City medical examiner’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The boy’s name has yet to be released.
Children exposed to drugs are at higher risk of overdose than adults because of their smaller bodies. The death at the shelter came one day after Grei Mendez, the owner of a day care in the Bronx, was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the fentanyl death of a 1-year-old in 2023. Three other toddlers in Ms. Mendez’s care were sickened by the opioid. Last summer, a 4-month-old died elsewhere in the Bronx from acute cocaine intoxication.
The 4-year-old in Brooklyn was found at a facility run by Win, the largest provider of family shelters and supportive housing in the city. A spokeswoman for the organization said that it was “devastated by the tragic death of this innocent child” and that it was working closely with the police in their investigation.
“We remain committed as ever to fostering a safe and supportive environment for all families that call a Win shelter home,” the spokeswoman said.
On Wednesday morning, vehicles entered and exited through the shelter’s gate, but there was no sign of the police. Residents coming and going on foot, some carrying shopping bags and talking on their phones, said that on Tuesday morning they had no idea that a child living at the shelter had died; they found out hours later, either from police officers on the scene or from news reports.
“I cried this morning for that baby,” said Debbie Ann Duns, who has lived at the shelter since October with her daughter, 6, and son, 18 months. “That hurt me to the core.”
Jay Lopez, who lives at the facility with her 18-year-old son, said that she noticed one police car outside late on Tuesday morning as she was leaving for an appointment. Ms. Lopez, 48, returned around 5 p.m. to find the shelter grounds “filled with officers.” An officer later told her that a boy had died, but not how, she said.
Ms. Lopez said that in the year she had been at the shelter with her son, she had not seen people using drugs there. “It’s a shelter, and I don’t see, like, nothing crazy,” she said.
Ms. Duns, however, said that she had seen signs of possible drug use among some residents. “Some people you see, they look like they’re using,” Ms. Duns, 45, said.
Jajaira Morales, who lives at the shelter with her adult sons, ages 20 and 21, said that on a handful of occasions the police had showed up and arrested someone. But she was visibly shocked and distressed to learn that a child had died there a day earlier.
“I’ve been here three years; this has never happened,” Ms. Morales, 49, said.
Ms. Morales took issue with the responsiveness of the private security guards hired to keep order at the shelter. “I feel like if they paid more attention, that wouldn’t happen,” she said.
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