OD Toll Hits 77; Cops Arrest Suspect

(Updated) A suspected bad batch of K2 sent crews racing all day Wednesday to treat dozens of overdose victims, most of them on the Green, in one of the busiest and most intense episodes of what has become a daily drama in New Haven.

The first reports of people collapsing on the Green came in around 8:15 a.m. Within four hours, firefighters, cops and AMR ambulance crews had transported people 22 times to the hospital for treatment. At least two were repeat customers: One man overdosed three times in six hours, officials said.

Then came another wave of overdoses a couple of hours later, with more people falling down, vomiting, losing consciousness. By 6 p.m. officials reported that crews had transported overdose victims 42 times to the hospital so far Wednesday, while another five victims refusing treatment on scene, for a total of 47. By midnight the number of transported and treated reached 72 plus the five refusing treatment, for a total of 77, according to Fire Chief John Alston Jr., who termed it a ​“mass casualty incident.”

No one died.

“Many are not from New Haven,” Alston noted of the victims. ​“Many come to New Haven for services.”

Officials theorized that the overdoses stemmed from a batch of synthetic marijuana known as K2 laced with fentanyl. Initial testing of a sample by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency revealed only the K2 without additives.

Meanwhile, police developed a lead on who may have sold the drugs. Their suspect, who is 37 years old, is on probation. With the help of probation officers, cops tracked him down and arrested him on Church Street near the Green. They also made a second arrest of a man with K2 on the Green Wednesday.

During a lull at 2:10 p.m., Police Chief Anthony Campbell and Fire Chief John Alston Jr. were comparing notes on the lower Green. A man in a cluster of Green regulars on a nearby bench was explaining the different groupings who get high each day in the park. ​“You have your potheads. You have your pillheads. You have your alcoholics,” he said. Then, pointing to where an unaccompanied cart was rolling toward Temple Street from a path on the Upper Green, he added, ​“And then there are the K2 smokers.”

Just then a woman called out that three people were down.

The chiefs ran over, Campbell radioing in for emergency help. Ambulance crews and firefigher medics, who had been on the Green all day, arrived in moments. With the help of Sandy Bogucki, emergency medical director for Yale-New Haven Hospital, they treated three men who had slumped over and were barely conscious.

“You OK?” Sgt. David Guliuzza kept asking one man on a bench while also directing the fast-growing crowd to step back to give emergency workers room.

The man on the bench twisted away from the Narcan-wielding crew workers.

“Listen, we’re going to help you out,” Guliuzza reassured him. ​“You OK?”

Eventually the three men were placed on stretchers and then transported to the hospital.

Reviving Victim Bolts

At the other end of the Green, near Church Street, medics found a man passed out on a bench.

They began administering to him. He stirred.

“Stay with us, all right,” one medic told him. ​“We’ll get you out of the sun.”

The man tried to stand up. ​“We’ve got an ambulance coming for you buddy,” a medic said.

The man got to his feet, began stumbling toward Church Street.

“Relax. Relax,” a firefighter urged him, placing his hand on the man’s shoulder.

The man slapped the hand away and started running.

The medics gave chase, joined by several police officers.

They caught up with him at the corner of Church and Chapel and tackled him in the road.

“Relax. Relax. We’re tryng to help you. You’re not in trouble,” one cop assured him

“We’re getting an ambulance. We’re trying to help you. Relax. Relax.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” the man insisted, wriggling his body.

“We’re helping you. We’re helping you,” came the response, and the man was brought to an ambulance.

Compassion Fatigue

According to Fire Chief Alston (pictured at the scene) and city emergency management chief Rick Fontana, none of the victims responded immediately to the application of Narcan, which usually works for people who have primarily injected an opiate like fentanyl. Once in the hospital, they did respond to larger doses of Narcan.

The cops also recovered a marijuana-style cigarette by one of the victims.

In one case, the same victim overdosed a second time after being revived at the hospital and released, according to Alston. In another case, the same person overdosed three times in six hours.

Victims reportedly were leaving the hospital against orders once they revived, returning to the Green for another high.

That put a strain on his firefighters. Concerned about ​“compassion fatigue,” Alston and Assistant Chief Mark Vendetto said, they decided to rotate six firefighters off OD duty after they’d responded to six cases within the first two and a half hours of their shift.

The overdoses also strained fire resources: ​“We had to pull three to four different engine companies and medical units” in addition to the AMR ambulance crews working the cases, Alston noted.

Dual-Tasking

The 19th overdose in four hours occurred across from City Hall on the Green around noon.

“How much did you smoke?” an emergency medical tech asked as a crew prepared to bring the victim to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

“A nickel bag of K2,” the victim said.

“Did you buy it from the person you normally buy it from?” downtown police beat Officer Jenna Davis (at right in above photo) gently pressed.

“On the street” was all the victim could offer.

Victim #19, who appeared disheveled and weakened, at first begged the crews not to bring him to the hospital. ​“I just got to go to work,” he insisted.

“You’ve got to go to the hospital my friend,” an AMR EMT softly responded. ​“You can’t go to work like this. You’re not in good shape.”

Seated near the flagpole on the Green, a woman from East Haven and her nephew watched the crews work. She said the nephew had been smoking the same batch of drugs Wednesday and ​“stopped” when people started dropping. The nephew declined comment and rode away on a bicycle.

“The ones that dropped right there, I know them,” the woman said. ​“It was K2. They all had death wishes.

“God answered their prayers.”

Meanwhile, a mobile vendor did brisk business in acai ​“life bowls” and smoothies at the weekly CitySeed New Haven Green farmers market steps away.

Responding to 20-odd overdoses in a single day is hardly unusual in New Haven these days, Alston observed. What made Wednesday’s wave unusual was the high number in such a short period of time, concentrated in one location. But the overdosing is constant. At 7:30 just the evening before, for instance, ambulance, police and fire crews arrived on the Green to respond to three overdoses.

A regular on the Green, who said he’d gone into a coma after a fentanyl overdose, watched as paramedics took the three people to the hospital. He suspected they’d been on K2, which he compared to ​“smoking potpourri.”

Christopher Peak contributed reporting.