South St. Paul drug overdose scene was ‘overwhelming’ – Twin Cities

The chaotic scene at the small house along Bircher Avenue was something not seen before by South St. Paul police and first responders.

As they pulled up around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, officers spotted three men lying on the ground outside. The men — between 25 and 28 years of age — were unresponsive and not breathing from overdosing after ingesting suspected opioids. Two other men were inside, also overdosing.

Emergency personnel began life-saving measures, including the use of Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of an overdose.

“It was overwhelming,” South St. Paul Police Chief Bill Messerich said Monday. “You had five people that are near cardiac arrest. Typically, you see one.”

Then, a sixth man collapsed.

And an officer with Inver Grove Heights police, who were called in to assist at the scene, soon reported having exposure-related symptoms. He, too, was rushed to an area hospital.

Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Melissa Chiodo said Monday the officer was not exposed to the drug.

“We were lucky,” she said.

On Monday, South St. Paul residents near the home said a woman recently bought it and moved in with her son earlier this month. When contacted Monday, the woman said she did not want to comment about what happened.

ALL EXPECTED TO SURVIVE

Messerich said the six men are recovering and expected to survive. He said it was yet unclear what drug they had taken. “Tests are being done,” he said.

Chiodo said the early belief is the drug the men apparently consumed could have been cut with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that people have been adding to heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.

RELATED: Minnesota’s opioid crisis. How bad it is?

As a drug, fentanyl “suppresses your respiratory system and can cause respiratory arrest,” said Dakota County sheriff’s Capt. Chris Melton, commander of the county’s drug task force.

It’s common to see fentanyl in the drugs they’re seizing, Melton said. He didn’t have information Monday about whether that was the drug at work in the South St. Paul overdoses; he said they won’t know until testing is completed.

Fentanyl is being made overseas in clandestine labs, though people have no idea about “the potency of it and whether it’s made correctly,” Melton added.

ON THE WATCH FOR MORE CASES

The South St. Paul overdoses appear isolated “so far, but certainly that drug dealer didn’t bring in enough for just six people,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said Monday.

“We will keep watching out to see if there are additional spikes,” he said.

In St. Paul, EMS personnel administered Narcan to nine people this weekend — more than in recent weekends (they used it four times the weekend before, one the weekend before that and two a weekend earlier), but there was no indication the cases were connected, said Ken Adams, deputy chief of emergency medical services for the St. Paul Fire Department. They happened at various times and in different parts of the city.