PLEASANT GARDEN, N.C. — A 31-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with a fatal 2024 overdose, according to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said Dylan Wayne Brown was taken into custody Monday following what they described as an extensive investigation by the department’s Major Crimes Investigative Unit.
The case dates back to April 29, 2024, when deputies responded to an overdose call on Laurel Knoll Drive in Pleasant Garden. Guilford County EMS pronounced 41-year-old Roger Lee Brown Jr. dead while crews were on the way to the home, according to the release.
Investigators have charged Brown with felony death by distribution. He is being held in the Guilford County Detention Center in Greensboro under a $100,000 secured bond. His first court appearance is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday.
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective J. Allen at 336-641-2799 or submit an anonymous tip through Guilford County Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000.Close Ad
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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.
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.
Delesha Carpenter’s personal tragedy has fueled her mission to combat opioid overdoses through increased naloxone access. Her new website with UNC maps naloxone availability across NC’s 100 counties.
Delesha Carpenter began her career as a researcher focused on pediatrics. A little over seven years ago, her path took an unexpected turn following the deaths of two close friends.
“A lot of people who get into this field, it’s personal,” Carpenter said. “I lost two friends within two weeks of each other to opioid overdoses. That really inspired me to increase access to naloxone.”
The researcher and professor with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy recently launched NalxoneNearMe.org. The website features an interactive map of all 100 North Carolina counties, rating them based on the number of naloxone distribution services available.
Durham County is tied with Mecklenburg County as the highest rated counties on the map with a score of 88. Wake County wasn’t far behind with a score of 77.
Carpenter told WRAL the Naloxone Availability Scores are based on the level of availability of no-cost naloxone and pharmacies that sell naloxone in each county.
Naloxone distribution resources are categorized into 14 types, including syringe service programs, EMS, harm reduction organizations, health departments, pharmacies and healthcare providers.
“The highest score a county can receive is 100, which would mean that all 14 naloxone sources included in the Naloxone Availability Score are present in that county,” Carpenter explained. “If a county had one harm reduction program in the county, they would get the same amount of ‘credit’ toward the score as a county that had two or three reduction programs.”
Increased naloxone use and availability are among the efforts researchers say have contributed to a reduction in opioid overdose deaths in recent years.
“One thing is everybody’s life is worth saving. It is important to carry naloxone, especially if you’re going to be in situations where people are going to be using drugs, you never know what is in the drugs that you’re using,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said increasing the availability of medications for opioid use, such as buprenorphine and methadone, would also help reduce overdose fatalities.
“Other resources that people should be aware of, and one that’s linked on our website, is Naloxone Saves. Ours tells you what types of sources are available, but you can go to the Naloxone Saves website and find the actual pharmacies that carry and stock naloxone, or find your health department and whether it’s distributing naloxone,” Carpenter added.
Naloxone will not harm someone who hasn’t taken an opioid, so it is recommended even when it is unclear what kind of drug a person has taken.
More than one dose may be needed because some opioids, like fentanyl, can take a stronger hold on the opioid receptors.
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.”
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Wake County prosecutors allege a Garner woman sold a fatal dose of purple fentanyl — which began appearing on local streets earlier this year — in March, according to the Wake County Sheriff’s Office.
Prosecutors said 39-year-old Matthew Godbold’s father called 911 on March 29 after finding his son unresponsive at home.
“They found the victim, Matthew Godbold, deceased in the living room. He was kneeling on the floor. His upper body was slumped over the couch. He had blue lips and was cold to the touch. Additionally, there was drug paraphernalia nearby the deceased,” Wake County prosecutors said Tuesday during a court hearing.
Investigators determined Godbold died from overdosing on purple fentanyl. Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the NC Department of Health and Human Services. Just two milligrams, the size of a few grains of salt, can be fatal.
Drug dealers dye fentanyl purple and other colors as a way to distinguish themselves, according to Raleigh police and the Wake County Sheriff’s Office. It’s often laced with other drugs, like tranquilizers, making it even more lethal.
“It’s just a coloring agent that’s added to regular fentanyl for marketing purposes, for drug dealers to make their product look better. However, the most common thing that we’re seeing are the small blue fentanyl pills,” said Lt. David Bradford with Wake County Sheriff’s Office.
Prosecutors believe Godbold’s fatal dose came from Lauren Olsen, who has a long history of drug charges. She appeared in court Tuesday to face charges of aggravated death by distribution and selling a Schedule II controlled substance.
“The death by distribution charge here is an aggravated charge that is due to the defendant’s previous conviction for attempted trafficking of opioids,” prosecutors said.
Court records show Olsen was convicted of that attempted trafficking charge in 2017. Prosecutors also said Olsen has a history of failing to appear for court dates.
Read the original article on watch the video on the WSOC-TV9 website.
CHARLOTTE — A woman in Charlotte is facing a murder charge after police say her 9-month-old daughter died from a fentanyl overdose this summer.
According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Departmnet, officers got a call on July 7 for an unresponsive infant at an apartment complex on Orchard Trace Lane. The girl was taken to the hospital, but she was pronounced deceased.
Channel 9 obtained an affidavit that says the baby’s mother, Hallie Ingram, told detectives that she gave the girl a bottle and put her in a pack and play around 9 a.m. and the girl was acting normal. Ingram said she took a nap for about an hour, and when she woke up, she found the girl unresponsive.
MONROE, N.C. (WBTV) – A man was arrested after a 39-year-old died from an overdose in Union County in March, according to police.
Records showed 52-year-old Fredrick Bivens was charged with death by distribution on Saturday, June 28, and given a $1 million bond.
What happened
On March 4, police said they responded to calls for an unresponsive person at a home along Broome Street in Monroe.
Upon arrival, officers said they found Jerry Deese suffering from a medical emergency, and “despite rapid intervention and lifesaving efforts,” he was pronounced dead.
His death was later determined to be the result of a drug overdose, according to police.
Investigation leads to Bivens’ arrest
After an “extensive investigation,” officers said they identified Bivens as being responsible for supplying the drugs that led to Deese’s death.
Authorities advised that shortly after identifying Bivens as a suspect, he was apprehended and placed in the Union County Detention Center.
“Let this case serve as a clear message: if you distribute deadly drugs in our community, you will be held accountable,” said Chief Rhett Bolen. “My department remains fully committed to aggressively pursuing those who profit from narcotics and ensuring they face the consequences of their actions.”
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.
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.
“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.”
