Parents of 1-Year-Old Who Died Following Fentanyl Exposure in Daycare Speak Out: 'It Is Too Hard'

Divino Niño, a daycare center in the Bronx, has become the location of what NYPD Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban calls "every parent’s worst nightmare"

Four children were rushed to the hospital Friday after their playmats were stored under a 1-kilogram brick of fentanyl at a Bronx daycare center — and now the parents of Nicholas Feliz Dominici, the 1-year-old who succumbed to suspected fentanyl exposure, are speaking out.

It’s “horrible that drugs were found in a place where children are cared for,” Nicholas’s father, Otoniel Feliz told The New York Times. He added, "[How] does it make sense that you’re going to mix narcotics with children?”

Divino Niño – or “Divine Child” – on Morris Avenue in the Bronx has become the tragic location of what NYPD Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban calls “every parent’s worst nightmare.”

There, police allegedly recovered “a large taped package” of fentanyl weighing about 1 kilogram and two one-kilogram press devices used to package the drug inside a hallway closet at the facility, according to a complaint filed in Bronx Criminal Court and obtained by PEOPLE. 

Related: 2 Charged After Death of 1-Year-Old in N.Y.C. Daycare Incident Involving ‘Opioid Exposure’

Grei Mendez, 36, who ran the facility, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, who lived in a bedroom at the daycare facility where police allegedly found a third kilo press in his closet, are accused of 11 criminal offenses including murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of a child, according to the complaint, which has not yet gone to a grand jury. 

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York announced on Tuesday two additional narcotics charges against Mendez and Acevedo Brito. If convicted of either count, they could face 20 years to life in prison. (Their lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.)

Federal prosecutors allege that after finding three children unresponsive at her daycare, Mendez made several calls – including two back-to-back calls to her husband, who prosecutors allege is a co-conspirator – before dialing 911, according to the federal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.

Minutes before emergency workers arrived to take Nicholas and the two other children to the hospital, Mendez’s husband – who is not currently detained by law enforcement – walked into the daycare empty-handed but allegedly left about two minutes later through the back alley carrying two shopping bags “weighted with contents,” according to surveillance footage obtained by investigators and described in the federal complaint.

Even after the alleged initial swipe, law enforcement said they recovered enough fentanyl from the daycare to kill 500,000 people, CBS News reports.

In addition to Nicholas, three children were all hospitalized for exhibited symptoms of opioid poisoning and provided Narcan, which reversed their effects of the overdose, according to prosecutors for both cases.

Related: FDA Approves Narcan Spray for Over-the-Counter Use Amid Sharply Rising Opioid Deaths in the U.S.

Baby Nicholas was pronounced dead at the hospital, his death linked to fentanyl exposure, according to both sets of prosecutors.

Mendez and Acevedo Brito were conspiring to distribute the narcotics since at least July, federal prosecutors allege.

But earlier this month, city inspectors conducted a “surprise” visit to the facility, which PEOPLE previously reported opened in January, and found it fully-compliant with their 40-item checklist, which includes notations on the proper storage of “all medications, toxic substances,” officials said at a Monday night press conference covered by The New York Times.

Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner, said at the press conference that the routine inspection does not include a search for powerful synthetic opioids.

“I’m very sorry, but one of the things my child care inspectors are not trained to do is look for fentanyl,” Vasan said, adding: “But maybe we need to start.”

The daycare center in the northern Bronx is one of thousands such home-based daycare centers across New York City.

Related: How Fentanyl Became One of the Biggest Causes of Drug Overdoses in the U.S.

Drug overdose deaths by synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, make up about two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths in the U.S., according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which tracked more than 70,000 such deaths in 2021 and noted that most of those deaths were the result of a fentanyl overdose.

Across New York City, drug overdoses have spiked by 78 percent since 2019, according to city health data. Fentanyl was detected in 80 percent of all the 2,668 overdose deaths reported in 2021, the most recent data available. Amongst the five boroughs, the highest-rate of overdose deaths were in the Bronx.

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Baby Nicholas would have turned 2 in November.

"The hardest thing is for me to come home and open that door and not see Nicholas saying, 'Dad, Dad,’” Feliz said in an interview with CBS New York on the pain of losing his youngest of five children. “It is too hard.”

“Look at what happened,” Nicholas’s mother, Zoila Dominici, added in Spanish. “If I had known, I wouldn't have taken him.”

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