The heartbroken mother of 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici, who died of a suspected opioid overdose at a Bronx daycare that was being used as a drug front, said her son had started at the center just the week before, when revelations horrible details about the drugs scattered around the place.
Zoila Dominici and Otoniel Feliz’s 1-year-old son Nicholas was still adjusting to daycare when he and three other children were sickened by fentanyl found at the facility on Friday, according to the heartbroken mother.
“We talked to those in charge… They recommended that place and apparently they complied with all the rules. We were on a waiting list for our son to qualify,” her mother told CBS New York in Spanish.
Nicholas, who would have celebrated his second birthday in November, was “very intelligent.”
“He repeated everything you told him. He had so much love. Everyone who knew him liked him, all our neighbors,” Dominici said.
The owner of the Divino Niño Daycare, Grei Méndez De Ventura, 36, and her alleged partner, Caristo Acevedo Brito, 41, who lived in the basement along with the drugged daycare, were arrested on Saturday.
Nicholas Feliz Dominici died after probable exposure to fentanyl at a Bronx daycare. Yeissy Dominici/Facebook
The couple was charged with murder, assault and child endangerment in the alleged fentanyl exposure death of 1-year-old Nicholas.
Police have launched a search for Ventura’s husband, who lived with her in the house next door and is also wanted in the child’s death, sources said.
Nicholas, the 1-year-old son of Zoila Dominici and Otoniel Feliz, started daycare about a week before the incident. CBS NY
Nicholas, who was the youngest of five children, and his family lived within walking distance of the home daycare, which Kingsbridge Heights Community Center recommended to the family.
The daycare, registered under the city’s Department of Children and Family Services, only opened last January, but passed a surprise inspection about a week earlier.
“Apparently the place passed all inspections. Supposedly that apartment was only for daycare, but the rumor is that, from what we have heard, they also rent rooms,” Feliz said.
Grei Méndez De Ventura, 36, owner of the Divino Niño daycare, was taken out of the 52nd district in handcuffs.
Fellow suspect Caristo Acevedo Brito lived next door to the basement daycare.
According to police, three other children – two 2-year-old boys and one of them’s 8-month-old sister – remain hospitalized after being exposed to the deadly drug while at the facility.
The children were apparently exposed when the fentanyl was cut at the daycare and some of it floated into the air, allowing them to inhale it, police sources explained.
Nicolás was the youngest of five brothers. Zoila Dominici/Instagram
Officers responded to a 911 call from the Kingsbridge child care center shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday and found three of the children unresponsive. Some of the children were given Narcan to try to save them.
Nicholas was rushed to Montefiore Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Police found three kilopress inside the daycare when they went to investigate on Friday. Christopher Sadowski
When authorities went to the daycare on Friday to investigate, they found three kilopresses, which are used to package large quantities of drugs, along with a kilo of fentanyl, prosecutors revealed in new documents.
A criminal investigation is underway into the daycare. Christopher Sadowski
“Look what happened. If she had known, she would not have taken him,” said the boy’s mother.
His grieving father added: “The hardest thing for me is to come home and open that door and not see Nicholas saying, ‘Dad, dad.’ It’s too difficult. We can not. Because the irresponsibility of people who don’t know, don’t know that playing with drugs and leaving them where children can reach them is too dangerous.”
Nicholas’s grieving mother said if she had known, she would not have taken him to daycare. CBS New York
The medical examiner’s office says the exact cause of Nicholas’ death is pending.
A criminal investigation is underway into the daycare.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn