Bronx locals say fentanyl ‘ruined neighborhood’ where 1-year-old died from opioid exposure

Days after a 1-year-old boy died after an apparent opioid exposure at a Bronx daycare center, longtime residents in the area were mourning not just the loss of the infant — but also their neighborhood, which they say has become overrun with fentanyl.

“This reminds me of the crack epidemic,” said Chanel Garcia, 35, who lives near the Morris Avenue daycare where 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici was found unconscious along with two other young children on Friday.

“Fentanyl has really ruined our neighborhood,” Garcia added.

After losing her girlfriend and two friends to fentanyl overdoses, Garcia said she started carrying Narcan during the pandemic to revive people on the street.

“I saved eight lives,” she said. “But for kids to get hurt from that stuff? It’s affecting people that don’t even deserve to be affected.”

Garcia, who has lived in the neighborhood for nearly 30 years, said an area of E. Kingsbridge Road just down the street from the daycare is a hub for drug dealing.

“Two blocks from here you’ll see zombieland,” said Dan Trivino, another neighbor. “This is a scourge. If you walk in the train station, you’ll see them overdosing everyday.”

Like Garcia, Trivino started voluntarily carrying Narcan to help revive people he came across in need of help. At 70, the former Vietnam War medic has revived 15- and 16-year-olds – but no one as young as those injured at the daycare, he said.

“I call it the murder drug,” Trivino said of fentanyl. “They’re all bad, but this one is a terminator.”

Fentanyl has become the most common drug found in New York City overdose cases in the last five years, detected in 80% of the city’s fatalities related to drug use in 2021. The Kingsbridge section of the Bronx recorded one of the highest overdose death rates in the entire city in 2021, according to the city's health department.

Black New Yorkers are more than twice as likely as white New Yorkers to die from cocaine or fentanyl overdose. Latino New Yorkers are a close second, according to city data.

Friday’s tragedy shined a new, shocking light on the city’s opioid crisis. Police and first responders found an 8-month-old girl and a 2-year-old boy unconscious next to Dominici. Another 2-year-old boy who was at the daycare the same day was later taken to the hospital with signs of opioid exposure, police said.

NYPD officials said a “kilo press” commonly used for packaging drugs was found inside.

Grei Mendez — the daycare operator— and Carlisto Acevedo Brito — who lives above the center — were charged on Saturday with murder and several other crimes including manslaughter, drug possession and endangering a child.

City medical examiner spokesperson Julie Bolcer said the official cause of Dominici’s death is under investigation. During a news conference on Saturday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said the fatality appeared to be drug related.

“I have no words for this,” said Otoniel Feliz, Dominici’s father. “Sad is just the beginning of all my feelings.”

A red rosary hung from the daycare’s entrance on Sunday beside a notice from the city’s Buildings Department.

City records show the department’s Emergency Response Team attempted to inspect the site sometime on Friday and again on Saturday morning, but was unable to gain access due to the “ongoing potential homicide investigation.”

A sign for the NYPD Operation Clean Halls hung above a blue gate on the building’s exterior. The controversial program, which was banned in 2020 following a civil liberties lawsuit, allowed police to patrol the hallways of private buildings to search for illegal activity.

A federal monitor found that the NYPD still patrols buildings in a similar way, but residents like Garcia say police haven’t done enough to tackle the drug problem.

“The police are very adamant when it comes to loud music,” she said. “They take your radio, they take your speakers, they take your liquor … But this? I’m beyond words.”