DRUG DEATH RIDDLE
Mystery as boy, 10, dies from Fentanyl overdose as cops say he may just have touched swimming towel containing tiny traces of deadly painkiller
Alton Banks collapsed suddenly after a trip to a pool near his Miami home
A TEN-year-old schoolboy believed to be the youngest victims of Florida’s Fentanyl epidemic may have died by touching a towel containing tiny traces of the deadly drug.
Alton Banks collapsed and started vomiting suddenly after a trip to his local swimming pool near his Miami home last month.
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Paramedics took the youngster to the city's Jackson Memorial Hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has now confirmed a combination of drugs killed the schoolboy.
“Preliminary findings are that it was a mixture of Fentanyl and heroin that killed this little boy,” she said.
Rundle added that investigators don’t think the boy was exposed to the dangerous synthetic painkiller at home.
The state attorney said that, considering Fentanyl’s potency, Alton could easily have overdosed after touching a towel or surface that the drug was on.
Health officials warn Fentanyl, and other synthetic forms of the drug, can be so powerful that just inhaling or touching a small speck can be fatal.
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He may also have been exposed while walking home from the pool, Rundle said.
Alton’s neighbourhood, Overtown, has been especially hard hit by opioid drugs, with more people dying last year from overdoses – nearly 300 from Fentanyl related drugs – than homicides.
The drug is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Accidental overdoses are not uncommon.
Fifth-grader Alton Banks died June 23 after a visit to the pool in Overtown.
His death has underscored how frighteningly prevalent Fentanyl has become and how potent it is.
Assistant Miami Fire Chief Pete Gomez said he has seen a spike in overdoses in the past year and needles often litter the streets of the crime-plagued district.
"There is an epidemic," Gomez said.
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"Overtown seems to have the highest percentage of where these incidents are occurring."
Detectives are still trying to piece together the boy's final day.
Rundle appealed to the public for information.
"This is of such great importance. We need to solve this case," she said.
"I believe this may be the youngest victim of this scourge in our community."
The boy's mother, Shantell Banks, was informed of the preliminary findings last week.
A distraught Banks told The Miami Herald that her son was a "fun kid" who wanted to become an engineer and loved the NFL's Carolina Panthers.
Jessie Davis, who lives in an apartment house next to the building where Alton lived, said her grandchildren, ages 8, 9 and 10, regularly make the same walk to the nearby park with a swimming pool.
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She said she initially thought the pool water made Alton sick and was shocked by news reports that he had been exposed to Fentanyl.
"Where would a 10-year-old baby get something like that?" Davis said.
Thinking about her own grandchildren going to the pool, Davis said, "I'm going to tell them, 'Don't touch nothing.' I don't know whether they think it's candy, but somebody needs to tell these kids something."
The Florida Department of Children and Families said it is conducting its own investigation, in addition to that of the police.
Fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller that has been used for decades to treat cancer patients and others in severe pain.
But recently it has been front-and-centre in the US opioid abuse crisis.
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Perhaps best known as the drug that killed pop star Prince, it is many times stronger than heroin. Dealers often mix it with heroin, a combination that has often proved lethal.
Fentanyl is so powerful that some police departments have warned officers not to even touch it.
Last year, three police dogs in Broward County got sick after sniffing the drug during a federal raid, officials said.
Gomez said his crews wear long sleeves, coveralls, gloves and masks while handling Fentanyl.
And "you never want to start reaching into people's pockets," he said, explaining that crews often cut people's pockets open for fear of pricking themselves with needles.
The Florida Legislature addressed the epidemic, passing a law that imposes stiff mandatory sentences on dealers caught with 4 grams (0.14 ounces) or more of Fentanyl or its variants.
The law also makes it possible to charge dealers with murder if they provide a fatal dose of Fentanyl or drugs mixed with Fentanyl.
The law goes into effect Oct. 1.
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