2 die, 2 saved in apparent overdoses

Four men were found unconscious in a Chico park Sunday afternoon, and two of them died there in what police said appeared to be drug overdoses.

Chico police started receiving 911 calls at about 1:25 p.m. about “four subjects who were unconscious and turning blue,” said Lt. Omar Peña, the police watch commander.

Police and fire personnel responded to Community Park near 20th Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

“They found four unconscious individuals and immediately started CPR,” he said. “Presuming it was an opiate overdose, we began administering Narcan.”

Two men were pronounced dead at the scene, and the two others were transported to local hospitals, he said. Their conditions were not immediately available.

Police recovered needles, cotton balls and other indications of drug use at the scene, Peña said. “Certainly we suspect fentanyl,” he said.

Four simultaneous overdoses are uncommon, he said.

The victims appeared to be in their late 30s to 40s, he said. Their identities were not released, pending notification of relatives.

“Four at once is unusual,” Peña said. “We have been seeing a significant increase in our opioid and overdose deaths in the past two years like everyone else has.”

Drug dealers “were systematically putting fentanyl in drugs to try to produce a high at a cheaper cost,” he said.

Chico resident Troy Steffy, 57, was participating in a pickleball tournament at the park at the time.

“All of a sudden, all these cop cars were driving like crazy to go to the softball field,” she said.

She walked over and saw first responders administering CPR to four victims.

A couple of hours later, “two bodies had sheets over them; they were still there.”

Steffy recognized one of the victims as an apparently homeless man she had seen earlier in the park bathroom.

“They were older, not kids,” she said of the victims.