San Francisco Parents Charged With Murder After 2YO’s Fentanyl Overdose

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Two San Francisco parents have been charged with murder in connection with the fentanyl overdose death of their toddler, marking a first for the district attorney’s office, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The charges against Steven Ramirez and Michelle Marie Price are in addition to child endangerment charges filed shortly after the February death of their 2-year-old, Stevie Price.

“We must protect the children in San Francisco,” Brooke Jenkins said Wednesday. “We cannot have environments where fentanyl is left available to young children — to any children — in our city, that results in the tragic fatal overdose like we saw in this case.”

The toddler died overnight on Feb. 12 after coming into contact with fentanyl left out in Price and Ramirez’s apartment, officials said. When first responders arrived on the scene, hours after the child’s death, they found it cluttered with loose drug paraphernalia and different amounts of fentanyl sitting in the open, Jenkins said.

“There wasn’t really anywhere safe for this child to be inside of this home,” she said.

Ramirez and Price were initially charged with child endangerment, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Jenkins said prosecutors were waiting for toxicology reports and a cause of death from the medical examiner before bringing the murder charges.

San Francisco Parents Charged With Murder After Toddler’s Fentanyl Overdose | KQED

The case marks the first time San Francisco prosecutors have brought homicide charges in connection to a fatal fentanyl overdose.

www.kqed.org