A 1-year-old boy died and at least three other children were hospitalized after being exposed to an opioid at a Bronx daycare, Mayor Eric Adams and police officials said Saturday.
Police and first responders arrived at the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, a daycare on Morris Avenue, Friday afternoon where police say they found three children unconscious and showing symptoms of opioid exposure. All three were taken to Montefiore Medical Center, where the 1-year-old boy was pronounced dead. A 2-year-old boy was listed in critical condition and an 8-month-old girl was listed in stable condition.
“All three children were unresponsive and demonstrating symptoms of opioid exposure,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny in a press conference early Saturday morning. “Narcan was administered to all three of these children in an attempt to save their lives.”
Police said another child, a 2-year-old boy who was picked up from the daycare center earlier that Friday afternoon, was taken to BronxCare Health System after his mother said he was acting lethargic and unresponsive. Police said he was in stable condition.
Kenny said investigators discovered a “kilo press” at the daycare center — a tool commonly used for packaging drugs, Kenny said.
State records show a daycare operating out of the ground floor at the address was first licensed in May. A person who answered the phone at the number registered with the daycare declined to answer questions about the incident.
City health commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said the facility was a home daycare that opened in January and passed a recent inspection. Police did not identify fentanyl as the opioid in question but Vasan said it can can have an effect if inhaled or through exposure to the skin.
He said the fact that children could have been exposed to such a substance was a sign of the dangers of the current opioid crisis.
“What it tells us is the overdose crisis affects all of us which is why it’s an…
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