By The newspaper
04 Oct 2023, 15:31 PM EDT
Otoniel Feliz is still processing and trying to understand the unexpected death of his one-year-old baby Nicholas from a fentanyl overdose at the “Divino Niño” daycare center in The Bronx (NYC), almost three weeks ago.
The pain has been great for the entire family, especially for her 7-year-old daughter, who constantly cries for her little brother and has trouble sleeping. “She had a dream about my son, her brother… She misses him and wanted him to be with her, it was so real,” her father told ABC News from the offices of Grant & Longworth, the firm preparing a civil lawsuit in his name.
Calling her a person is an insult to humanity.”
Baby Nicholas had only been in the care of that daycare at 2707 Morris Avenue for five days. Four Hispanics have been arrested and charged with her death and the attempted murder of three more babies with overdoses who were miraculously saved in the hospital on September 15.
The accused are Grei Méndez (33), owner of the daycare, her husband Félix Herrera García (34) – detained in Mexico and already extradited to the US -, Carlisto Acevedo Brito (41) – Herrera’s cousin – and Renny Antonio Parra Paredes (38), alias “El Gallo”.
Prosecutors say Méndez allegedly told her husband that police would be on the way before calling 911. The criminal complaint also alleges that she deleted from her phone about 21,500 messages she had exchanged with an alleged accomplice, whom Law enforcement officials identified him as Herrera, between March 2021 and September 15, the day of the tragedy.
“Calling her a person is an insult to humanity,” Feliz said of Méndez. “How could I justify prioritizing his dirty business over the lives of the four children who were there?”
“It’s outrageous that someone would think of having something as dangerous as drugs where there are children,” Feliz added about the evidence presented by the feds when they discovered a trap door to hide drugs directly under the area where the children played and napped. “You don’t work with animals, they are babies,” she added.
In the midst of her mourning, Feliz asks parents who have children in daycare to conduct their own surprise inspections, without prior notice, to make sure their children are safe.
New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan previously commented that “Divino Niño” was an open “in-home” child care site recently authorized by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). ). State inspectors had visited the center unannounced on Sept. 6 and found no violations, records show. A sign outside said they served children between 6 weeks and 12 years old.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be used to mix drugs such as cocaine or heroin and produce an effect up to 50 times stronger.
The growing supply of fentanyl has exacerbated the city’s drug epidemic: the deadly opioid is detected in 80% of overdose deaths, according to the Department of Health (DOH). This was not the first baby death in 2023 that NYPD links to narcotics use.
I looked for help
- Call 988 or 1.888.NYCWELL (1.888.692.9355).
- Text “WELL” to 65173.
- Review information at https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/es/ and www.988lineadevida.org