Alameda sheriff’s deputy potentially exposed to opioids during search

An Alameda County sheriff’s deputy appears to have been exposed to opioids while responding to a Wednesday morning call in Castro Valley, authorities said.

Deputies were dispatched just before 4:30 a.m. to the McDonald’s parking lot at 1620 Strobridge Ave., where four men in an SUV were reportedly looking into vehicle windows and possibly casing for auto burglaries.

After detaining the suspects, a deputy searched through one man’s pocket and started sweating profusely. The deputy reported having a rapid heartbeat and needed to sit down, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, an Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

“His partners on scene recognized through their training from the last year and a half that he was showing signs of symptoms exposed to some type of opioid,” Kelly said.

Another deputy on scene administered four milligrams of Narcan, a drug that blocks the effects of opioid overdose, but the victim required a second dose to fully recover.

The suspect admitted to using fentanyl and possessed fentanyl strips to test for the drug, officials said. Investigators have not confirmed what substance was in the suspect’s pocket.

“There was a ground-up white substance we need to get analyzed,” Kelly said. “We believe it’s some type of controlled substance, so we’re going to have that sent to the crime lab.”

Sheriff’s investigators also found methamphetamine and a loaded Glock handgun at the scene. Three of the men were arrested on suspicion of drug possession.

The afflicted deputy went to a local hospital for decontamination and has been released, authorities said.

Wednesday’s incident marked the third time an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy has been exposed to opioids, following a 2018 incident in a Hayward motel room and a March 2019 incident at Santa Rita Jail.

The department started training its deputies to use Narcan for overdoses after learning about the opioid epidemic on the East Coast and in the Midwest, officials said.

This week the narcotics unit recovered “several” ounces of pure fentanyl that investigators believe was intended to be cut into the local drug supply. However, near-deadly accidental opioid exposures remain rare, Kelly said.

“People get freaked out about this and I would just say, we make thousands of contacts every year and here’s three incidents of it,” he said. “It’s out there, it’s something we’re concerned about, but we don’t want to spread public fear.”