3 Needham officers hospitalized for fentanyl exposure – Boston Herald

Three police officers were hospitalized early Friday for fentanyl exposure received while arresting a couple on drug charges outside a Needham hotel.

Needham police were conducting a routine check outside a hotel on B Street around 12:50 a.m. when they encountered a suspicious vehicle. During the investigation, Needham police Chief John Schlittler said, three of his officers were exposed to fentanyl.

“We know they were exposed because it was in a container and at some point, that container was open and that was when the exposure happened,” Schlittler said on Friday. “With a substance like this that’s so dangerous, the effect it can have immediately on our officers and other people around — we take the greatest level of precautions, we called the HAZMAT (team) to render the substance safe or contained the best we can.”

Schlittler said the three officers began experiencing headaches and called the fire department, and then were taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Needham for observation. The officers were released and remain in good condition, he said.

Brandon Randall, 31, of Norwood, and Stephanie Solimine, 28, of Westwood, were arrested and charged with possession of a Class A drug.

Both appeared in Dedham District Court Friday where prosecutors said the car was not registered to either Randall and Solimine, and that both have suspended licenses. Randall is being held without bail while Solimine was ordered held on $100 cash bail. Both are due back in court on Monday.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new report that found the rate of fentanyl overdoses spiked more than 1,000 percent from 2011 through 2016, to 18,335 overdose fatalities in 2016. The CDC’s findings come just three months after it published another report that confirmed that fentanyl is the deadliest drug in America.