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Los Angeles police on Thursday arrested two teenage boys in reference to the death of a 15-year-old girl who overdosed in a restroom at her high school after shopping for tablets probably laced with fentanyl on campus, authorities mentioned. Authorities want to discover the distributors who supplied the boys with the tablets, and the town’s mayor declared: “This was not an overdose. This was murder.”
Police served a search warrant round 8:30 a.m. as half of an investigation into the overdose death of a girl a day earlier at Bernstein High School in Hollywood, police Chief Michel Moore mentioned.
A 15-year-old boy who lives along with his grandmother was taken into custody on suspicion of manslaughter, Moore mentioned. Investigators imagine he offered tablets touted as Percocet to 2 15-year-old mates round 12:30 p.m. Tuesday who later crushed and snorted the narcotics in the restroom at their school.
The Los Angeles County Coroner recognized the coed who died as Melanie Ramos, 15. Her unidentified buddy who additionally overdosed remained hospitalized and was anticipated to get better.
Ramos’ aunt mentioned the high school sophomore had desires of becoming a member of the Army, CBS Los Angeles reviews.
“Stop poisoning our kids,” Ramos’s aunt mentioned. “This has to stop. This can happen to anybody. Unfortunately, this happened to our family.”
“Think of Melanie before you take anything,” mentioned one other of her aunts. “Don’t take anything you’re not supposed to take.”
Moore mentioned police additionally arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of promoting fentanyl-laced tablets to 2 different high school college students who suffered overdoses after shopping for the medication at close by Lexington Park. He might face narcotics-related fees, the chief mentioned.
Police will work with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to search out the distributors who supplied the 15- and 16-year-old boys with the tablets, Moore mentioned.
“There is a drug organization behind this,” he mentioned.
The teen suspects knew one another, and each attend Apex Academy, an unbiased constitution school that shares a campus with Bernstein.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
Dealers lacing frequent painkillers with fentanyl is an more and more frequent observe, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti mentioned at a news convention.
“These are people who have been poisoned,” Garcetti mentioned. “One pill can kill.”
Garcetti took to Twitter following the press convention, the place he supplied a solemn warning.
“Hear this: If you peddle death to our kids, we will come for you,” the tweet mentioned, adopted by a second tweet that learn: “This was not an overdose. This was murder. And my heart breaks with the families and children affected by this growing evil. We will not rest until justice is served.”
Officers have been referred to as to Bernstein High Tuesday evening after a person mentioned his 15-year-old stepdaughter had overdosed on campus, police mentioned.
The girl and her buddy had not come house from school in the afternoon and the person started driving round city in search of the pair. He discovered his stepdaughter round 8 p.m. in a school courtyard, mentioned police Lt. John Radke.
She had suffered an overdose however managed to inform her stepfather that her buddy was in a ladies’ restroom on campus, Radke mentioned Wednesday.
The man and a school worker discovered the opposite girl unresponsive in the restroom on the school the place college students and oldsters had gathered for night athletic occasions. The man administered help till paramedics arrived and pronounced her lifeless, police mentioned. His stepdaughter was hospitalized.
Earlier in the day, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to separate calls reporting potential overdoses of two teenagers in the realm of Lexington Park, just a few blocks from Bernstein High and a cluster of different faculties, in keeping with police.
“It is believed that the overdose victims are students of Bernstein and local high schools,” a police assertion mentioned.
One of the victims was a 17-year-old scholar at close by Hollywood High School, mentioned Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
Including the newest victims, there have been a complete of six circumstances of drug-related incidents together with overdoses stemming from illicit narcotics bought in current at Lexington Park in a residential space of East Hollywood close to the U.S. 101 freeway, Carvalho mentioned.
“It is a park well known for allowing individuals to sell drugs to provide drugs to some of our students,” the superintendent informed reporters Wednesday.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who represents the realm, ordered the park closed Wednesday, Carvalho mentioned.
Grief and disaster counselors have been readily available at Bernstein High, LA Unified mentioned in a press release.
Law enforcement officers nationwide have for months warned concerning the risks of fentanyl, an artificial opioid 80 to 100 occasions extra highly effective than morphine. It’s ceaselessly blended into illicit tablets made to appear to be prescription painkillers or different medicines.
The arrests come days after a Minnesota man was sentenced to life in jail for promoting fentanyl on-line that led to 11 deadly overdoses.
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