2023-09-21 04:12:24
The boy Nicholas Dominic would turn two years old in November. He already knew how to count to ten, he loved playing with the shapes of the clouds when he looked out the window and already recognized some colors. Those are the most recent and vivid memories that his father, Otoniel Feliz, has when he talks about his little son, who died last Friday “in the most tragic way that can happen.”
The whole life ahead and the innocence of a one-year-old little boy who liked to repeat everything his mother, Zoila Dominici, told him, was interrupted on Friday when he accidentally inhaled fentanyl that was hidden under the bed in which he He slept in the kindergarten that he had been attending for just a week.
“He had a lot of love. “Everyone who knew him appreciated him, all our neighbors,” Zoila Dominici told CBS in New York.
Destroyed by the tragedy, Dominci’s parents told several media outlets that they came to this children’s center on the recommendation of some acquaintances.
He didn’t wake up from his nap
The tragedy for the family of the boy Nicholas, and three other children who are in serious condition, began on Friday afternoon, when the four children were taking a nap in the daycare.
Grei Méndez, owner and administrator of the Divino Niño daycare, located in the Bronx, was alerted when she saw that none of these minors woke up. Desperate, Grei called her husband twice and then 911 (emergency number in the United States), as recorded by the authorities.
In the report to the emergency number, Grei reported that three of the children did not wake up and were “breathing strangely.” Upon arriving at the daycare, the Police and emergency groups reported that two minors were “in cardiac arrest” and that another was very serious with a weak pulse and without adequate breathing.
With the rush of saving the lives of little ones, New York authorities took Nicholas and a two-year-old and an eight-month-old child to the hospital, where according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, “These children were administered Narcan in an attempt to save their lives,” a substance used to treat drug overdoses.
But Nicholas did not resist, and upon arrival at the Montefiore hospital, the medical staff declared him dead, while the two-year-old child continues under medical observation and the eight-month-old girl was declared out of danger.
The first investigations
The Divino Niño daycare was opened in January 2023. Grei Méndez, and his partner, had the initiative to take care of children between 6 weeks of age and 12 years of age, and they thought of creating this kindergarten to help them with expenses in an expensive New York for any of its inhabitants.
Just a month ago, the child care center had passed a surprise check by authorities who found no anomalies in the routine check. That is why the Police Chief was surprised when upon arriving at the scene, they discovered that the fentanyl inhaled by the minors was hidden under the mattress on which they slept after eating lunch.
In the words of the New York Health Commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, it is unknown why they had that drug in this children’s center and how the children got to it, but somehow, the minors came into contact with it, “either by inhalation , ingestion or contact with the skin. “We don’t know what happened.”
With the death of the child Nicholas, and after the raid on the kindergarten, the authorities wove several hypotheses, among which were that, apparently, this daycare was being used as a front for the production of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl inside the school. headquarters, located in the building 2707 Morris Avenue in The Bronx.
There are two detainees
After the confirmation of the death of the child Nicholas and the aggravation of the other three minors, the New York Police took on the task of searching for the culprits, and on Saturday morning, just before they left the headquarters child, Grei Méndez and Carlisto Acevedo Brito were arrested, a cousin of the husband of the owner of Divino Niño to whom the couple rented a room on the ground floor (a basement) in which, apparently, this man manufactured the drugs that They are then sold on the streets of New York.
Officer Kenny explained that those arrested will be charged with 11 crimes, including involuntary manslaughter and assault.
The lawyer for the owner of the kindergarten, Andrés Aranda, stated at a press conference that the woman did not know about the drugs because she “rented a room to someone and did not know what was happening,” and added that the death of the child is a tragedy for everyone.
Among the evidence that will be presented to the judges are the calls that Méndez made to her husband in the midst of her desperation, the deleted messages between them and a video in which the husband is seen taking some bags out the back door before the arrival of the police.
Four days later, Nicholas Dominici’s parents took refuge in silence and mourned his departure. The consolation, they say, has been found in the little one’s memories of him playing with the clouds through the nursery window.
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