A 10-year-old Miami boy may be the youngest person to die as a result of being in contact with opioids in the area.
Alton Banks of Overtown suddenly collapsed and died on the floor at his family home back in late June. His cause of death had been a mystery as authorities attempted to find what may have triggered it.
Earlier in the day, Alton was at a nearby pool with friends, but there was no hard evidence of what may have led to his death after an investigation.
Then, the preliminary results of a toxicology test were released July 17. They showed that the child had the extremely powerful painkiller fentanyl in his system, and it ultimately led to his death.
Young victims of the drug, many who may be curious toddlers who take the drug by mistake, have been known to die from ingesting it. But with 51 victims under 5-years old in 2015, they account for a very small percentage of opioid deaths.
Now, the family and community are all searching for answers as to how the deadly opioid may have gotten into his system in the first place.
Here’s what you need to know about Banks:
1. Banks Was at a Pool During the Day & Died Later That Night
Alton Banks and his siblings.
The Miami Herald reported that on June 23, Alton, a fifth-grade student at Frederick Douglass Elementary School, went with a few friends to a gathering at a pool in the neighborhood. He returned home in the evening, but was discovered unconscious at the home on the 100 block of Northwest 13th Street.
Alton’s mother called 9-1-1 and paramedics rushed to the home and then the hospital. But when he arrived at Jackson Memorial, doctors pronounced him dead.
Police still aren’t sure if Banks was knowingly given the drug by someone or how he came into contact with it. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle encouraged anyone with more information on his death to come forward.
“He was out playing, like we want all our children to do,” Rundle said to The Herald. “It’s unclear whether it was at the pool or on the walk home. We’re anxiously hoping that someone comes forward to help us solve this horrific death.”
Although still uncertain, preliminary toxicology tests are shedding into light into Alton he died.
Authorities said there were no signs that suggested Alton had been in contact with the opioids at his home, though Overtown has been known for sales of the drug.
Since 2015, at least 31 people have died from overdosing on the drug. In addition to that statistic, Miami-Dade paramedics used Narcan to bring victims back to life 1,700 times in just the first nine months of 2016.
Investigators surmised that he could have “unknowingly come into contact” with fentanyl somewhere on the street.
Additional testing has been performed by the medical examiner, and a final death report is pending.
A tribute poster remembering the life of 10-year-old Alton Banks.
Alton’s mother Shantell posted a message on her Facebook saying that her son would be laid to rest July 8 with the viewing taking place July 7 at Zion Church in Miami.
Shantell was interviewed by phone by a reporter from The Herald, who wrote that she was “too distraught to speak in-depth.” But she shed some light into the kind of person Alton was. She said that he loved the Carolina Panthers and described him as a “fun kid” who desired to be an engineer when he grew up.
“Cam Newton was his favorite football player,” Shantell told the newspaper.
Alton Banks and his brothers pose at a Miami Heat game.
Shantell’s Facebook page is full of photos of her children, many of them on their way to school or being surprised by an impromptu trip to the American Airlines arena to see a Miami Heat basketball game, such as the above photo.
GettyBags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference.
Fentanyl is so strong that police departments and federal agents across the nation have warned against even touching it.
“Assume the worst,” acting DEA administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in a video shown to paramedics. “Don’t touch this stuff or the wrappings that it comes in without the proper personal protective equipment.”
In November 2016, three police dogs in Broward County got sick after they sniffed the drug during a federal raid.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and is one of the most deadly painkillers out there. In fact, it’s even deadlier than heroin, PBS Newshour reported.
Fentanyl is much stronger than heroin and takes just a 3-milligram dose of it to kill an average-sized adult male, the news outlet reported. That’s compared to the about 30 milligrams of heroin it takes to kill the same-sized person
The emergence of fentanyl on the streets has become a massive problem because some drug dealers lace heroin with it, and drug users are generally left unaware of it. Therefore, when they inject the heroin, they could possibly — and unknowingly — take a deadly dose.
5. Miami Has Become a Hub to the Opioid Epidemic
The Miami area has become ground zero for opioids in recent years.
The amount of deaths due to opioids has led to the Florida Legislature passing a law that requires a minimum mandatory sentence on drug dealers that are caught with four grams or more of fentanyl. In addition to that piece of the legislation, dealers can now be charged with murder if they provide fatal doses of fentanyl to drug users. The law goes into effect October 1.
According to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office, more people died from opioid abuse in 2016 than from homicides. There were almost 300 deaths due to overdose of fentanyl/opioids in the area last year. Taking the full state of Florida into account, there were 853 total people who were killed by fentanyl and its analogs in 2016.
