2-year-old girl dies of suspected overdose near downtown Minneapolis
By Riley Moser
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Police are investigating after they say a toddler fatally overdosed on Tuesday evening at an emergency homeless shelter near downtown Minneapolis.
Around 5:30 p.m., dispatch received a report regarding an unresponsive 2-year-old girl who was not breathing at Higher Ground on the 100 block of Glenwood Avenue, according to the Minneapolis Police Department.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says that when officers arrived, they found suspected drugs near the girl. Officers attempted life-saving efforts and even administered Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal drug, but that was not enough to save the girl. She was transported to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where she later died.
O’Hara added that they suspect fentanyl caused the overdose.
One of the girl’s parents, a second adult not believed to be related to the girl and the girl’s 7-year-old sibling were present at the time of the overdose, police say. No arrests have been made.
“It’s a terrible, really tragic situation here,” O’Hara said. “Seeing things like this is difficult, especially when it’s not a good outcome. No matter what the officers try to do — provide Narcan, provide CPR — it just does not work. That’s not easy for officers to go through.”
In an update Wednesday, Minneapolis police called the death suspicious. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
The child’s official cause of death will be determined by a medical examiner.
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