"Don't know where he got it:" Fentanyl blamed for 10-year-old boy's death after visit to pool

MIAMI — A 10-year-old boy from a drug-ridden Miami neighborhood apparently died of a fentanyl overdose in June, becoming one of Florida's littlest victims of the opioid crisis, authorities said Tuesday, July 18th. But how he came in contact with the powerful drug is unclear.

Fifth-grader Alton Banks died June 23rd after a visit to the pool in the city's Overtown section. He began vomiting after coming home and was found unconscious that evening. Preliminary toxicology tests show he had fentanyl in his system, authorities said.

"We don't know where he got it. We don't believe he got it at his home," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. "It could be as simple as touching it. It could have been a towel at the pool. We just don't know."

The case has underscored how frighteningly prevalent fentanyl has become — and how potent it is. Exposure to just tiny amounts can be devastating.

Investigators said he may been exposed to the drug on his walk home in Overtown, a poor, high-crime neighborhood where 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.

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

"This is of such great importance. We need to solve this case. I believe this may be the youngest victim of this scourge in our community," she said.

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, especially Cam Newton.

Jessie Davis, who lives in an apartment house next to the building where the boy lived, said her grandchildren, ages eight, nine 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.' I don't know whether they think it's candy, but somebody needs to tell these kids something. I don't know how you just by touching contract it or whatever. We need to know more."

Fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller that has been in use for decades to treat cancer patients and others with severe pain, through use of a patch. But recently it has been front-and-center in the U.S. opioid abuse crisis.

Perhaps best known as the drug that killed pop star Prince, it is many times stronger than heroin and is often used by dealers to cut heroin.

"It's heroin laced with fentanyl, that's what is killing people," Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a recent interview.

Fentanyl is so powerful that some police departments have warned officers about even touching the drug. 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 protective clothing, including long sleeves, coveralls, gloves and masks, while handling the drug.

"You never want to start reaching into people's pockets," he said, adding that crews often cut people's pockets open for fear of pricking themselves with needles during pat-downs.

The Florida Legislature addressed the epidemic, passing a law that imposes stiff minimum 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 new law goes into effect October 1st.

Nearly 300 overdose deaths in Miami-Dade County last year involved variants of fentanyl, according to the medical examiner's office. Statewide, fentanyl and its variants killed 853 people in the first half of 2016. Of those, only nine were under age 18.