interview Archives - Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina

Toddlers revived with Narcan after fentanyl exposure; mother & boyfriend charged

Read the article and watch the video on the WRAL TV News website.

Raleigh police arrested mother Vinus Humphreys and her boyfriend Tyrone Bannerman on felony child abuse charges after her twin 22-month-old children were exposed to fentanyl inside their apartment.

Raleigh police arrested a mother and her boyfriend for child abuse after they said her twin toddlers were exposed to fentanyl inside their apartment.

Vinus Humphreys, 25, and Tyrone Bannerman, 28, are both facing two counts of felony child abuse. Raleigh police responded after 8 p.m. Monday to a home on Lake Hills Drive to a report of an unresponsive child.

EMS was already on scene providing medical aid to a 22-month-old child when, shortly after, the child’s twin also became unresponsive.

First responders administered Narcan to both children and took them to the hospital for further treatment. Their condition is considered stable and are expected to survive.

Narcan is is a medicine that can help people who are overdosing on an opioid.

Raleigh police found drugs, drug paraphernalia and a firearm inside the home, resulting in more charges for Bannerman, including:

Trafficking opium/heroin
Manufacturer of Schedule II controlled substance
Misdemeanor possession of marijuana

The incident raised concerns for Barb Walsh, the executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. The number of children younger than the age of 5 dying from fentanyl is on the rise. According to the North Carolina Office of the Medical Examiner, 29 children younger than 5 year old died from fentanyl between 2017 and 2022, with 72% of those deaths occurring in 2021 and 2022.

“It breaks my heart,” Walsh said. “I hate to use the word overdosing with a two-year-old because they didn’t know what they were taking.”

Walsh lost her 24-year-old daughter in 2021 to an unintentional fentanyl exposure when a toxic amount of it was in a water bottle. It’s why she’s so involved in advocating for change so other families don’t have to experience this pain.

“We’re making progress,” Walsh said. “That’s all we can hope for.”

Earlier this year, Gov. Josh Stein signed a new law creating new criminal offenses for exposing a child to a controlled substance.

Walsh said it goes much further than the laws in place now.

“They get child abuse or child neglect,” Walsh said. “The new law will be a felony even if they ingest it and are OK. That will save someone else’s life.”

Walsh said the new law is a lot more specific compared to the broader charge of child abuse. However, Humphreys and Bannerman won’t be charged under the new law. While Stein signed it into law in July, it won’t become effective until Dec. 1, which is exactly four weeks after Humphreys’ twins were exposed to fentanyl.

“People who endanger a child with a harmful substance like fentanyl should be held accountable for their actions,” Walsh said. “It will lead to lives being saved. That’s the goal. We want lives saved.”

Humphreys and Bannerman are due in court for their first appearances Wednesday afternoon in Wake County. Authorities are holding both of them without bond.

October Hometown Hero: Annie Brown

Read the original article and watch the video on the WITN TV News website.

CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – After losing her 26-year-old son, Tyler Dees, to fentanyl in 2022, Annie Brown of Carteret County has turned unimaginable grief into a powerful mission of hope and healing for others battling addiction.

Dees, a Carteret County native, was known for his love of fishing, making lures, and spending time with friends and family. His mother says his death came after years of struggling with mental health issues.

“I got the call the next day from his dad that he was gone,” Brown said. “I knew he was going to pass away before I moved back from California, I just didn’t know it would happen right before the holidays. He’s at peace right now with all the demons he was battling. He was diagnosed at a very early age with depression.”

Brown says her son’s death was not an isolated tragedy.

Father turns son’s overdose tragedy into advocacy as North Carolina overdose deaths drop

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – What started as a normal day for UNCW student Alex Bradford ended in tragedy, but his father’s mission to honor his memory comes at a time with encouraging statistics about North Carolina’s fight against the overdose crisis.

“I would say by far that was the worst day of my life,” said Jeremy Bradford, Alex’s father.

Alex died in 2023 from an overdose, a life full of promise that became part of a nationwide statistic.

Jeremy Bradford heard the words no parent is ever prepared to hear.

“Because of the distance between Spring Lake and Wilmington, we didn’t initially find out. We found out through social media. Somebody texted my wife and said, ‘Hey the police and ambulance are at the boys’ apartment complex. I think something’s wrong with Alex,” Bradford said.

Jeremy says his son was having a tough day and purchased what he thought was a Percocet pill, but it was actually straight fentanyl. That was two years ago.

Now in North Carolina, the state health department reports overdose deaths are trending down.

Each day in 2023, 12 North Carolinians died from drug overdoses. But in 2024, that number decreased to 8.

Locally, numbers presented to the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners in April showed emergency room visits from overdoses decreased from 110 in 2023 to 98 in 2024.

“For the first time in over 20 years of studying this, I actually am speechless,” said Nabarun Dasgupta, a street drug expert at UNC-Chapel Hill, when asked about drug trends moving forward.

He also says trends show that most overdose deaths are between Gen X and millennials.

“What you see with Gen Z is a really different substance use pattern that’s more Psilocybin, more marijuana, a little more ketamine and ecstasy. And so they have watched their parents and their grandparents’ generations struggle with opioids and have decided that’s not the drug of choice for that generation,” said Dasgupta.

Dasgupta says there are several reasons overdose deaths are declining.

“I think we can understand the decline in overdoses in three ways. One, the drug supply is changing. Number two, people’s behaviors are changing. And number three, the demographics of who is using opioids is also changing,” Dasgupta said.

And a common activity seen in college students and drug use is sharing pills. But he says this is also on the decline.

“We see a lot less of that sharing behavior now. And that’s kind of across the board, and the problem now is not really with the prescription opioid and pills,” said Dasgupta. “Most mortalities are coming from powdered substances.”

But Jeremy Bradford believes advocacy and awareness play a role in the decline, too.

That’s why he created the 2 Out Rally Foundation to educate and advocate for mental health and empower individuals impacted by illicit fentanyl use.

They host events and advertise at places like baseball games to help parents and kids educate themselves.

“It’s been very therapeutic for our mental health to put pain to purpose. And our purpose now is to tell Alex’s story and ensure no other parent has to go through this. I’m a member of a club I never wanted to be a part of. And I don’t like new members,” Bradford said.

Bradford hopes that the death of his son will help save the lives of others, and overdose deaths will continue to decline.

“So that when it gets tough, when it is the bottom of the ninth and there are two outs, you’re not out of the game,” said Jeremy Bradford. “There’s still plenty of life to live and to move on. And you don’t need to result to a negative action that could end up taking your life.”

Man sent to prison in death by distribution case

Read the original article and view the pictures on the Wilson Times website.

A Wilson man received more than five years in prison after pleading guilty in the county’s first death by distribution case, following the fentanyl overdose death of a 25-year-old Navy veteran.

A Wilson man was sentenced Monday to an active term in state prison after pleading guilty to the first death by distribution case to be adjudicated in Wilson County.

Tabron Tyrone Farmer, 35, of the 5100 block of Wilson Road, made an Alford plea July 29 to death by distribution in the June 25, 2023, death of 25-year-old Shade Izayah Anthonee Staples. An Alford plea is an arrangement in which the defendant doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges there is likely enough evidence to ensure a conviction

In Wilson County Criminal Superior Court on Monday, Resident Superior Court Judge L. Lamont Wiggins sentenced Farmer to a minimum of five years and seven months to a maximum of seven years and nine months active in the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections.

Farmer is the first person to be sentenced in Wilson in a death by distribution case since modifications in the death by distribution law were ratified in September 2023, providing for stiffer sentences for defendants who unlawfully deliver certain controlled substances that proximately cause a person’s death.

Assistant District Attorney Kristen Spainhour told the court that on the date of his death Staples had consumed three beers at Brewmasters at lunchtime, at which time he called Farmer asking to purchase Percocet pills.

Spainhour said Staples walked to a nearby store to meet Farmer. Staples purchased two blue pills from Farmer. Spainhour said the transaction was captured on video, adding he thought he was purchasing Percocet.

Spainhour told the court that the defendant called the victim shortly thereafter saying that he thought he had given him the wrong package, that he “thought he messed up.”

At 2:22 p.m. on the date of his death, family members noticed that Staples’ speech was slurred while he was playing a video game with his sister, Spainhour said. Staples “slumped over on the couch” and was not moving and his eyes had rolled back, Spainhour told the court.

First responders could not revive Staples despite giving him the overdose reversal medication naloxone.

Spainhour said fentanyl was determined to be the cause of death.

Spainhour said the victim’s family was “devastated” by the loss.

Defense attorney Andrew Boyd told the court that his client pleaded guilty as a result of a plea arrangement in which lesser charges were dismissed.

Boyd told the court that Farmer has 12 children, is married and that his wife was in court for the sentencing.

“There is nothing we could say that would bring Shade Staples back,” Boyd said.

Farmer was ordered to pay $2,975 in counsel fees to attorney Boyd.

Wiggins revoked Farmer’s bond and ordered him taken into custody.

STAPLES A NAVY VETERAN

After the sentencing, Staples’ mother, Taira Gandarilla, formerly of Wilson and now residing in Knightdale, told the Times that her son was a Navy veteran.

“It is kind of bittersweet,” Gandarilla said. “Regardless of the outcome, it’s not going to bring Shade back, but it is very rewarding as a mother to know that even though my son sacrificed his life, we can definitely prevent somebody else from losing their life as a result of this young man’s carelessness.”

Gandarilla said it was comforting to her that other parents of Fentanyl overdose victims were in the courtroom at the time of the sentencing.

Ten families of Wilson County fentanyl overdose victims were present in the court for Monday’s hearing.

Gandarilla said that until Monday, she did not know this group existed.

“You guys didn’t know me from Sunday, and to know that I already have a family is incredibly comforting,” Gandarilla said. “You can go through therapy all day long, but the best therapy is to go through it with people who have walked in your shoes. We have than commonality that is going to forever bond us.”

Gandarilla said her son was “first and foremost a brother.”

“Shade absolutely coveted the relationship that he had with his sisters. He was the oldest of four siblings. He had three younger sisters, and those were his girls. He was incredibly family oriented. He was an old soul. For a 25-year-old man, he literally saw the world differently than anybody else I had ever met. He just saw things from a different lens. He was always asking questions. He wanted to learn as much as possible every single day.”

Two other death by distribution cases are pending in Wilson County.

Wilson County has had 151 fentanyl fatalities since 2013, according to Barb Walsh of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. She was with parents of overdose victims who were at the courthouse.

Download Article PDF

Carteret County leads state in death by distribution charges

Read the original article watch the video WNCT TV9 website.

CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) — Carteret County has the most charges of death by distribution in the state from 2013 to June 2024, according to the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.

The law allows officials to prosecute individuals who sell or give drugs to someone that leads to an overdose death. Carteret County has had 171 fentanyl-related deaths since 2013, according to the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.

Barb Walsh founded The Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina after fentanyl killed her daughter in 2021. She now collects data and information from government agencies about fentanyl deaths so people can know what is happening in their counties.

“My 24-year-old daughter was killed by fentanyl in a water bottle. August 16th, 2021,” Walsh said. “She was smart. She was successful and professional. She had just gotten a promotion. She lived in Charlotte, 24 years old, and she should still be alive.”

Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck III said tackling the fentanyl crisis is a priority for his office. He said the death by distribution law has become a strong tool.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a grieving mother or father, many of whom I’ve talked with right here sitting in this office, then come back to me and tell me what you think about the death by distribution law,” Sheriff Buck said. “It’s easy for people to say how they would feel, but when it comes home to them, it’s a completely different story.”

Learn more about the Fentanyl Victims Network here.

Mom honors son’s memory by battling fentanyl crisis in North Carolina

Read the original article and watch the video on the WCNC New website.

Debbie Dalton’s advocacy continues as officials sound the alarm on the crisis.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Union County District Attorney Trey Robison is sounding the alarm about fentanyl and opioids, something he says remains a public health and safety issue as leaders across the Tar Heel State continue seeking solutions.

According to the State Bureau of Investigation, North Carolina averages nine deaths from fentanyl overdoses every day. Community leaders say it’s the number one issue impacting their community.

That’s a number that’s too high for Debbie Dalton.

Dalton lost her son, Hunter, to fentanyl in 2016. She’s been sharing her son’s story for the past eight years. In almost every room in Dalton’s home, reminders and memories are seen throughout. She told WCNC Charlotte that Hunter was a UNC Charlotte graduate who had bright dreams.

“This is Hunter’s room — he loved penguins, so we collect penguins everywhere we go,” Dalton said.

The Monday after Thanksgiving in 2016, Dalton learned she would never see her son again. Fentanyl, which he used as a recreational drug, turned deadly.

“I was bracing for ‘Hunter’s been in an accident’. I never could have fathomed the words that Hunter had overdosed. I just remember screaming,” Dalton said.

Dalton started her own organization, the Hunter Dalton HD Life Foundation, to warn others about the dangers of recreational drug use.

“Young people today, to make the decision to try drugs, there really is one of two things that are going to happen: they’re going to end up with a life of addiction or they’re going to die,” Dalton said.

“You can’t talk about those things without also talking about mental health; they are intertwined,” said Union County District Attorney Trey Robison, who’s advocating for more robust mental health and drug addiction treatment programs and places people can go when they need help.

“We’re working on the supply side of the opioid crisis, but the demand side has to be addressed as well. We’re not going to arrest and incarcerate people out of the opioid crisis, that’s not going to happen,” he added.

In the meantime, Dalton holds onto the bucket list her son created. She keeps it in his room as a reminder of why she’s advocating for families impacted by drug addiction to receive support.

“He has on his bucket list to save someone’s life, and what 23-year-old thinks of that?” she said. “We know that’s what he’s doing, his story is saving lives.”

Dalton has been recognized by Governor Josh Stein for the work she’s doing. Next month, she will meet with North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson to talk about more ways to combat the opioid and fentanyl crisis.

Contact Siobhan Riley at sriley@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook and X.

Catawba County spending about 10% of opioid settlement funds. Where is the money going?

Read the original article on the Hickory Record website (pay wall).

Billy Chapman

“Because these funds are a one-time disbursement, as a community, we have to be strategic about where they are spent to ensure that we have a meaningful and lasting impact.”

To read this article you must have access to the Hickory Record.

“One pill took her daughter”: Fentanyl Crisis turns personal at Salisbury Roundtable

Congressman McDowell pledges to fight fentanyl crisis in North Carolina after losing his brother to an overdose.

SALISBURY, N.C. — The fentanyl crisis tearing through North Carolina isn’t just a public safety threat — it’s personal. At a high-level roundtable this week in Salisbury, that reality hit home as lawmakers, prosecutors, and grieving families joined forces to demand action.

Congressman Addison McDowell, who convened the meeting, opened with a message that carried more weight than politics.

“Getting it off our streets is just the first step,” McDowell said. “Prosecuting those who profit from fentanyl is a major step as well.”

For McDowell, the fight is more than a policy priority — it’s a personal mission. His younger brother died from a fentanyl overdose, a tragedy that inspired his run for Congress.

“We want to stop the deaths that come with this poison,” he told the room, surrounded by district attorneys, sheriffs, and special agents.

Among the voices calling for change was Barbara Walsh, founder of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. She clutched a photo of her daughter, Sophia, as she told the story no parent should have to repeat.

“Sophia was 24. She went to visit friends in Watauga County. On her way out of town, she stopped for water,” Walsh said. “That bottle, unknown to her, had just eight nanograms of fentanyl. It was enough to kill her.”

Her story silenced the room — a chilling reminder that behind the data are names, faces, and futures cut short.

“It’s more than a number. Every photo is just one ripple in a massive pond of fentanyl deaths,” Walsh said.

Local sheriffs echoed her urgency, pointing to limited resources and the growing reach of drug trafficking networks.

“What I’ve seen in three years as sheriff — this is a local resource issue,” said Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen.

Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers added, “We can’t fight this alone. We have to work with partners — every agency, every county.”

The roundtable, titled “Prosecuting the Poison,” ended with a commitment to tougher laws, better coordination, and faster action.

For leaders like McDowell and families like the Walsh’s’, that commitment can’t come soon enough.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, help is available. Contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

North Carolina attorney general targets popular texting app linked to fentanyl crisis

Read the original article and watch the video on the WECT website.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson is cracking down on a popular texting app that he says is helping fuel the fentanyl epidemic.

In a Monday announcement, Jackson and five other attorneys general said they’ve sent a letter to the leaders of the app “WeChat” for allegedly playing a role in fentanyl money laundering.

“We wanna hit the cartels where it hurts,” Jackson told WECT. “And where it hurts is this money laundering, this digital pipeline that has opened up.”

The Chinese-based app, with over a billion users around the world and thousands in North Carolina, is designed to support encrypted communication between people, and also has an integrated payment system. But criminals are using that payment system, Jackson said, to launder drug money.

WeChat is at the center of a triangle of criminal activity between the United States, China, and cartels, Jackson said. The cartels move fentanyl into the U.S., and the sales money then goes to China. Laundered money and goods then move “discreetly” from China back to the cartels, Jackson said, with communication and money transfers often going through WeChat.

This graphic shows the ‘pipeline’ by which fentanyl is brought into the US and payments are funneled through Chinese money launderers back to the cartels.(NC DOJ)

“The motive for most crime is money. If you want to reduce the crime, you reduce the money. The way we reduce the money here is focusing on WeChat,” he said.

The attorney general said he’s given WeChat 30 days to identify potential solutions to the issue. The app has “yet to adequately address the exploitation of its platform by criminal actors,” the announcement said.

A comment request from a WeChat representative wasn’t immediately returned.

“We want them to do enough to change the reputation that WeChat has, because right now, WeChat has a reputation as a safe haven for facilitating money laundering,” Jackson said.

The fentanyl crisis has affected communities around the state and country; with roughly six per day, overdoses from the drug are now the leading cause of death for people under the age of 45 in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Department of Justice.

Monday’s announcement also cited several recent investigations and criminal cases that involved WeChat being used in fentanyl-related money laundering:

“The 2021 conviction of Xizhi Li, who managed an international criminal network using WeChat to coordinate bulk cash transfers between Chinese banks and drug cartels.
Operation Chem Capture (2023), in which eight companies and 12 individuals were indicted for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals, with transactions coordinated through WeChat.
Collaboration between Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Chinese laundering networks, which regularly use WeChat to facilitate cash pickups, currency swaps, and repatriation of drug proceeds.
A recent 2024 federal indictment in South Carolina, charging three defendants with using WeChat to communicate in order to launder proceeds from fentanyl sales as part of an international conspiracy.”

Leaders urge action amid rising fentanyl crisis in Carolinas

North and South Carolina attorneys general launch bipartisan effort to tackle fentanyl trafficking and money laundering in Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced a bipartisan initiative Monday targeting Chinese tech giant WeChat for allegedly facilitating money laundering connected to fentanyl trafficking in the United States.

“WeChat is essentially helping to bankroll the fentanyl epidemic. This must stop,” Jackson said during the announcement.

The effort, joined by five other state attorneys general, including South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, accuses WeChat of inadequate measures to combat illegal financial transactions that support drug trafficking.

“Evidence strongly suggests that WeChat has allowed itself to become an enormous digital pipeline for money laundering that fuels the fentanyl trade,” Jackson said.

The coalition has issued a demand letter giving the company 30 days to detail specific actions it’s taking to address what officials describe as rampant money laundering on the platform.

“We need answers. We need them now,” Wilson said.

“If they don’t comply with our request, we believe that we have a range of options for escalation,” Jackson said. “For a number of reasons, we’re choosing not to detail what those options are, but we strongly encourage them to respond.”

The initiative aims to disrupt the financial networks supporting fentanyl distribution, which officials believe will help reduce the flow of the deadly drug into American communities, including Charlotte, with CMPD Lt. Robert Sprague, who works in investigations, also present for the press briefing in support.

“While CMPD’s Vice unit and others within our organization do an excellent job investigating and seizing these operations, this type of activity occurs across the country and internationally,” Lt. Sprague said, “often passing through surrounding jurisdictions before ultimately reaching Charlotte.”

Sophia Walsh 8/16/2021 Forever 24 Watauga County, NC — Sophia Walsh

Barbara Walsh, representing the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, is among the hundreds of thousands of people estimated to be impacted by the fentanyl crisis in the United States. She says she lost her daughter, Sophia, an Appalachian State University graduate, in 2021 after Sophia drank from a water bottle laced with fentanyl.

“You don’t really recover from this, as a family,” Walsh said. “Siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, husbands, wives. It is forever, and if we could stop one person from dying, which means one family won’t be traumatized and deal with this for the rest of their life.”

She expressed hope that the attorneys general’s efforts would prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies.

“If we can disrupt the money laundering, you can disrupt the distribution of deadly fentanyl in this state,” Walsh said.

This announcement comes on the heels of North Carolina Governor Josh Stein’s recent visit to Charlotte, where he pushed for funding for a fentanyl control unit. During a news conference, Stein was joined by CMPD officials and individuals impacted by the fentanyl crisis, including Debbie Dalton. Dalton, who lost her son Hunter to fentanyl in 2016, shared her heartbreaking story, emphasizing the deadly and unpredictable nature of the drug.

“It took hardly a minute for my 6’3″, very healthy son to have a heart attack,” Dalton said. “That’s the thing with fentanyl. You don’t see it coming, but it’s coming. It’s relentless, and it’s killing our young people, and nobody is safe from it.”

The proposed fentanyl control unit, which Stein has advocated for since his tenure as attorney general in 2023, would include drug agents and prosecutors dedicated to investigating drug rings statewide and stopping the flow of narcotics into North Carolina communities. Despite Stein’s persistent efforts, the unit has not been included in the final state budget, including this year’s Senate budget proposal.

Stein urged the legislature to consider the urgency of the situation, noting that the House is currently deliberating its budget. He highlighted the need for additional resources, stating that the proposed unit would cost a couple of million dollars annually, a sum he believes is within the General Assembly’s capacity. While the Senate’s budget plan includes funding for 10 additional prosecutors and five legal assistants for Mecklenburg County, marking the first significant staffing increase for the DA’s office in nearly 15 years, Stein stressed the need for more focused efforts on fentanyl.

At the recent meeting, CMPD officials reported receiving 600 overdose calls so far in 2025, an 11% increase from the same period in 2024. This statistic underscores the growing urgency to address the fentanyl crisis and the importance of the upcoming bipartisan effort announced by Attorneys General Jackson and Wilson.