Chico police release man’s cause of death in apparent mass overdose – Oroville Mercury-Register

CHICO — Chico Police Chief Mike O’Brien on Wednesday released the cause of the death of the man who died in the apparent mass overdose earlier this month at a Chico home.

The man, 34-year-old Aris Turner of Chico, died Jan. 12 from acute fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine poisoning, O’Brien said.

The police chief added that investigators found fentanyl in combination with cocaine at the north Chico home.

Fourteen other people who were taken to hospitals, including two responding police officers, have since recovered and been released.

Turner’s cause of death and the drugs found at the scene have confirmed police suspicions that the powerful opioid fentanyl is connected to the incident.

Police said a criminal investigation remained ongoing. No arrests have been announced.

“We wanted to release this information as soon as it was confirmed, as we felt it became a public health matter once the fentanyl nexus was established with the cause of death,” O’Brien said at a news conference Wednesday.

Asked by a reporter whether police fear there is a “bad batch” of drugs going around Butte County, the police chief countered by asking, “Is there a good batch of drugs that are out there?

“Obviously that is a new phenomenon — at least on the West Coast — that we’re really starting to see right now, and that’s the introduction of fentanyl,” O’Brien said. “So it makes everything a little more dangerous.”

O’Brien did not reveal where police believe the drugs connected to the overdose incident may have come from, citing the ongoing investigation.

Chico police responded about 9 a.m. Jan. 12 to a 911 call reporting a “mass overdose” incident at a home in the 1100 block of Santana Court near East and Ceres avenues, the police chief has said.

Turner died on the scene, and more than a dozen others were taken to area hospitals for treatment, he said. Police believe some sort of party was being held at the home. A person who said he was at the home that morning described the gathering as a “kickback.”

O’Brien said Wednesday that the person who initially called 911 was a person at the Santana Court home.

“Without the first phone call that came in, many, many people could have died, and that is an important aspect of this public health announcement,” the police chief said. “If you see someone in distress like that, you need to call and get help because that death can occur rather rapidly.”

O’Brien further credited the “quick reaction” of police, firefighters and medics in administering the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone in saving multiple lives.

“This event, although tragic, especially for the Turner family,” he said, “would have been far worse and likely would have resulted in multiple fatalities absent those life-saving actions.”