EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A 3-year-old southwestern Indiana girl died after ingesting fentanyl and two other children in the same home were hospitalized with apparent opioid overdoses, authorities said.
Six people were arrested after emergency responders found Kamari Opperman dead Wednesday morning in a house in Evansville where police discovered thousands of fentanyl pills,
Kamari’s grandmother told police that the children “got hold” of a bag containing fentanyl pills the night before, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.
No one took Kamari to the hospital, and two other children who showed signs of overdosing didn’t get medical treatment until first responders rushed them to a hospital Wednesday and gave them a medication used to revive people suffering from opioid overdoses, a probable cause affidavit states.
Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nick Hermann said Thursday that the two other children, ages 2 and 4, were in stable condition.
“This tragedy needs to serve as a wake-up call to our entire community,” he said, adding that one or both of the other children may have died without the medical treatment they received Wednesday.
Police believe another child, an infant, was also “exposed” to fentanyl, and Hermann said detectives found more than 5,600 fentanyl pills inside the home in the city, located about 165 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
Police arrested six people, including Kamari’s mother and two of her grandparents, on preliminary charges of neglect of a dependent causing death, according to jail records.
Evansville police spokeswoman Sgt. Anna Gray said the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Joint Drug Task Force is “dealing with fentanyl constantly.”
“It’s a growing issue for sure,” she said.
The Associated Press left a message Friday seeking comment from the Vanderburgh County coroner’s office on the status of Kamari Opperman’s autopsy results.
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