Nicholas Feliz Dominici.Photo:Gofundme
Gofundme
Four children were rushed to the hospital Friday after their playmats were stored under a 1-kilogram brick of fentanyl at a Bronx daycare center — and now the parents of Nicholas Feliz Dominici,the 1-year-old who succumbed to suspected fentanyl exposure, are speaking out.
It’s “horrible that drugs were found in a place where children are cared for,” Nicholas’s father, Otoniel FeliztoldTheNewYorkTimes. He added, “[How] does it make sense that you’re going to mix narcotics with children?”
Divino Niño – or “Divine Child” – on Morris Avenue in the Bronx has become the tragic location of what NYPD Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban calls “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Otoniel Feliz and Zoila Dominici.CBS News/ YouTube
CBS News/ YouTube
Grei Mendez, 36, who ran the facility, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, who lived in a bedroom at the daycare facility where police allegedly found a third kilo press in his closet, are accused of 11 criminal offenses including murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child, according to the complaint, which has not yet gone to a grand jury.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New Yorkannounced on Tuesdaytwo additional narcotics charges against Mendez and Acevedo Brito. If convicted of either count, they could face 20 years to life in prison. (Their lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.)
Recovered from the daycare: L: one of the kilo presses used to package narcotics R: the 1-kilo brick of fentanyl.U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
Even after the alleged initial swipe, law enforcement said they recovered enough fentanyl from the daycare to kill 500,000 people,CBS News reports.
In addition to Nicholas, three children were all hospitalized for exhibited symptoms of opioid poisoning and provided Narcan, whichreversed their effects of the overdose, according to prosecutors for both cases.
Mendez and Acevedo Brito were conspiring to distribute the narcotics since at least July, federal prosecutors allege.
Grei Mendez, center.Theodore Parisienne for NY Daily News via Getty
Theodore Parisienne for NY Daily News via Getty
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner, said at the press conference that the routine inspection does not include a search for powerful synthetic opioids.
“I’m very sorry, but one of the things my child care inspectors are not trained to do is look for fentanyl,” Vasan said, adding: “But maybe we need to start.”
The daycare center in the northern Bronx is one of thousands such home-based daycare centers across New York City.
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“The hardest thing is for me to come home and open that door and not see Nicholas saying, ‘Dad, Dad,’” Feliz said inan interview with CBS New Yorkon the pain of losing his youngest of five children. “It is too hard.”
“Look at what happened,” Nicholas’s mother, Zoila Dominici, added in Spanish. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken him.”
source: people.com
