Wichita Falls police arrest man in connection with fentanyl overdoses of 14-year-old girls
A 17-year-old man in the Wichita County Jail faces drug charges related to what police said were overdoses by two 14-year-old girls on fentanyl.
Julio Natanael Zepeda-Gomez was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, according to court documents.
He was being held Friday in the Wichita County Jail on $150,000 in bonds, according to online jail records.
Wichita Falls police were summoned to an apartment complex on Professional Drive on April 27 to check on the welfare of a girl.
According to allegations in arrest warrant affidavits, officers found first responders administering aid to an unresponsive girl who had foam coming from her mouth. The first responders administered Narcan, a medicine that reverses the effects of opioids such as fentanyl.
A witness said she had found the girl with a man in the bedroom of an apartment.
The man said he didn’t know what had happened but asked the witness not to call police, according to allegations. Then he fled the scene.
At a hospital, the overdose victim told police a man named Julio asked her to “do a perc,” a street name for counterfeit pills containing fentanyl.
On April 12, first responders were summoned to help another 14-year-old girl found unresponsive in a grassy area near another apartment complex on Professional Drive.
A witness said she was walking with the victim when the girl began to stumble and then collapsed, according to allegations. The victim said the girl had a history of using Percocet pills.
First responders had to administer three doses of Narcan to revive her.
At the hospital, the girl told police a man named Julio was her dealer, and she paid him $20 dollars per pill, which she then crushed and snorted, according to allegations. With information provided by the Wichita Falls ISD, police identified the man as Zepeda-Gomez.
Anyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid know to sometimes cause death with a single dose. Because of a high number of fentanyl-related deaths in Wichita Falls, police and the Wichita County District Attorney’s Office initiated a crackdown on suspected fentanyl suppliers.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Wichita Falls police arrest man in fentanyl overdoses of 14-year-olds
