A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in reference to the overdose demise of a 15-year-old woman at a Los Angeles highschool earlier this week, police stated.
The boy was taken into custody on suspicion of manslaughter Thursday morning, two days after two 15-year-old women had obvious overdoses at Helen Bernstein Excessive Faculty within the 1300 block of North Wilton Place in Hollywood Tuesday night.
A pupil discovered within the toilet died. The coroner’s workplace recognized her as Melanie Ramos, NBC Los Angeles reported. The opposite woman survived and stays hospitalized.
Police stated the women bought what they believed to be Percocet. Authorities suspect it was laced with fentanyl — a artificial opioid that’s as much as 50 occasions stronger than heroin.
The 15-year-old suspect is a pupil at Apex Academy, a public constitution faculty that’s impartial from the Los Angeles Unified Faculty District and shares a campus with Bernstein, police stated.
He had further drugs believed to be the identical narcotic when he was taken into custody at his grandmother’s residence, LAPD Chief Michael Moore stated in a news conference Thursday. Authorities suspect these drugs are laced with fentanyl, too.
The teenager had minor contacts with police prior to now relating to curfew and tobacco possession however “no different legal contact,” in response to the chief.
Throughout the information convention, Moore shared a breakdown of the varsity overdose tragedy.
He stated the women are believed to have bought the capsule on the varsity’s campus, went to the lavatory to crush the capsule and snort it. Each teenagers appeared to move out.
When the teenager who survived awoke, she discovered her good friend unresponsive. She walked exterior the varsity and located her stepfather who was in search of her, alerted him about her good friend, and he tried to manage help to her.
When Los Angeles fireplace officers arrived to the scene, they pronounced the good friend useless.
A wider investigation into the supply of the drugs is ongoing.
After responding to the women’ overdoses, fireplace officers reported they went to 2 further calls of overdoses within the space of Lexington Park, a couple of half-mile south of the varsity, additionally believed to contain highschool college students.
Moore introduced Thursday {that a} second teen was taken into custody in reference to the park drug sale: a 16-year-old pupil who additionally attended Apex Academy and shall be charged with sale of narcotics. He was described as a detailed affiliate of the 15-year-old suspect.
Their names weren’t launched resulting from their ages.
Police have spoken to one of many overdose victims from the park drug sale, however are asking for the opposite sufferer to return ahead.
“Our work doesn’t cease as a result of these two people — 15 and 16 years of age — are merely transferring and soldiering, if you’ll, this distribution,” Moore stated. “There a drug group behind this.”
He stated an investigation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Excessive Depth Drug Trafficking Areas Job Drive will work to establish who’s supplying the medication to the 2 teenagers. Moore vowed to pursue an “aggressive prosecution.”
Los Angeles Unified Faculty District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho spoke on the information convention, saying he visited Ramos’ household Wednesday morning earlier than noting the overdose demise causes “irreparable” hurt to the neighborhood.
“These aren’t overdoses,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stated on the information convention. “These are individuals who have been poisoned. These are murders.”
