Opioids take life of fifth-grader

Officials believe 10-year-old Miami boy is among the youngest to die in fentanyl crisis

MIAMI — Prosecutors believe a 10-year-old boy who died at his home in a drug-ridden Miami neighbourhood has become one of Florida’s littlest victims of the opioid crisis. But it’s unclear how he came in contact with fentanyl — a drug so potent that even accidental exposure can be devastating.

Preliminary toxicology tests show Alton Banks had fentanyl in his system when he collapsed and died at his home on June 23, The Miami Herald reported. The fifthgrader started vomiting after coming home from the neighbourhood pool. He was found unconscious that evening and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators said there is no evidence he came into contact with the drug at home. They think he may have been exposed to it at the pool or on his walk home in Miami’s poor, high-crime Overtown neighbourhood, which Assistant Miami Fire Chief Pete Gomez said has seen a spike in overdoses in the past year and where needles sometimes litter the streets

“There is an epidemic,” Gomez said. “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. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Officer is doing additional testing, and a final report has yet to be released.

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle appealed to the public for information on how Alton came into contact with the drug.

“He was out playing, like we want all our children to do,” Rundle said. “We’re anxiously hoping that someone comes forward to help us solve this horrific death.”

The boy’s mother, Shantell Banks, was informed of the preliminary findings last week. She was too distraught to speak to the Herald in depth but said her son was a “fun kid” who wanted to become an engineer and loved the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, especially Cam Newton.

Reached by telephone, Banks told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning that she was unable to talk about her son’s death because she was in a meeting.

Jessie Davis, who lives in an apartment house next to the building where the boy lived, said her grandchildren, ages 8, 9 and 10, regularly make the same walk as Alton to the nearby park with a swimming pool.

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.’”

Fentanyl is a painkiller that has been in use for decades to treat cancer patients and others with severe pain.