Arizona man Roderick Begay charged with homicide after toddler dies from drug overdose
SURPRISE, ARIZONA: Roderick Begay, a 37-year-old resident of Surprise, Arizona, has been accused of manslaughter, child abuse, and endangerment. He was detained on suspicion of possessing a weapon against his will, among other charges, per FOX 10 Phoenix.
Begay was taken into custody in relation to the death of a toddler who had drugs in his system.
The one-year-old boy was lifeless when police arrived and attempted to revive him before rushing him to a local hospital on Sunday, September 3.
Fox10 reports that hospital personnel "learned a narcotic was present in the child's system."
What are the charges against Roderick Begay?
Police detained Begay, 37, after they discovered that there were drugs in the child's body. In a statement to the network, police said he was "arrested and charged with multiple crimes related to the death of a child."
Following his arrest, Begay was lodged in the Maricopa County Jail.
Police did not confirm the child's relationship to Begay or the type of drug that was found in his system. The death of the child is the subject of an ongoing investigation.
According to Newsweek, Begay was charged on September 3 with one offense of assault, a single count of homicide, one count of crimes against children, and one count of weapons and explosives.
The Surprise Police Department told FOX 10, "This tragic investigation is ongoing and we will not release the name of the child at this time. We do not expect any further updates until results of the Medical Examiners report are known."
Florida infant boy dies after young mother puts fentanyl in bottle
In another incident, a 9-month-old infant boy died in Florida in July 2023 after his teenage mother was accused of poisoning his bottle with enough fentanyl to kill ten people, as per authorities.
According to Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper, the 17-year-old mother was detained on suspicion of aggravated manslaughter and possession of a prohibited substance.
She allegedly told investigators that she had mistaken the fentanyl for cocaine and had placed it in her infant's bottle to put him to sleep because she was exhausted and needed to take a nap, per CBS News.
In another tragic drug overdose incident, a 3-year-old boy died days after consuming fentanyl, according to Apache Junction police.
On January 25, the child apparently took at least one fentanyl pill before his family took him to the hospital.
The young patient received Narcan treatment before being flown to a different hospital, where he died days later on January 29.
The child had illicit/street-grade fentanyl in his system, but it was not known exactly where he came in contact with it. It reportedly took place when he was en route between the islands of Apache Junction, Mesa, and Maricopa County.
Approximately 107,622 drug overdose deaths occurred in 2021
The anticipated overdose fatality rate for all substances in Maricopa County in 2022 was 41.9 per 100,000 persons, according to data gathered by the City of Phoenix.
Drug overdoses are the main cause of injury-related death in the US, accounting for over 107,622 deaths in 2021, as per Newsweek.
Arizona reported 562 homicide deaths in 2021, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Moreover, Arizona has an estimated 8.1 recorded homicide deaths per 100,000 residents after adjusting for the death rate.
According to the Arizona Child Fatality Review Team, there were 863 documented fatalities of children between the ages of 0 and 17 in Arizona in 2022.
Even though it is a significantly lesser number than the primary cause of death for children between the ages of 0 and 17, the study discovered that 238 child deaths were reported as accidents.