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Two women continue searching for solutions after mass drug overdose event
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ST. LOUIS – Nearly a year has passed since numerous people overdosed on drugs in the Central West End.
Nine people overdosed, and seven of them died in one small area. It was February 5, 2022, when first responders began getting calls about overdoses at Parkview Apartments. Some of the victims were elderly.
Two women jumped into action. Pastor Pamela Paul and 17th Ward Alderwoman, Tina “Sweet Tea” Pihl.
“One thing that surprised me was the ages of the individuals,” Pihl said. “…from senior citizens to middle-aged.”
“I knew one of the people personally, and I knew some of their family members,” Paul said.
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“When I heard about it, I wanted to have a call to action, what could we do about it,” Pihl said.
“It’s really important to me for lots of reasons,” Paul said. “I’ve lost lots of family members to opioid overdoses, right? I’ve lost a nephew, a cousin, my brother, and my son to overdose. So it put a humanity piece to it for me, and it put a human face on it, and so for me, it is my life.”
They set up a listening session to hear from people living amid the tragedy.
Parkview residents said at the time they wanted action.
“Just do a drug sweep, a DEA drug sweep,” one woman said.
The feds did just that and then charged a 46-year-old Parkview resident with distributing fentanyl-laced drugs. The defendant died before her trial.
At the time, the DEA said St. Louis’ mass overdose event was one of at least seven across the U.S. in just a two-month period.
“Many of the victims of these mass overdose events thought they were ingesting cocaine and had no idea they were ingesting fentanyl,” said a spokesperson for the DEA.
Fentanyl is now a common “filler,” 100 times stronger than morphine. St. Louis’ DEA Special Agent in Charge gave an illustration with a packet of sugar.
“That right there is the equivalent of 1,000 lethal doses of fentanyl,” said St. Louis’ DEA Special Agent.
Alderwoman Pihl and Pastor Paul have a long-term approach but are attacking the problem through other potential causes of drug addiction.
“This is happening all the time, so I have been trying to start a harm reduction initiative,” Pihl said.
“We’ll find out that most addictions stem from mental health challenges,” Paul said.
“Join me in terms of how can we, as a community, collaboratively organize to mitigate this crisis,” Pihl said. We can. We have to work together.”
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. – Two people are behind bars after a man reportedly attacked a Jefferson County deputy with a screwdriver during an attempted arrest over the weekend.
Prosecutors have charged Nicholas Davis, 47, and Amanda Davis, 45, of Dittmer, Missouri, with felonies in the investigation.
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The alleged attack followed a traffic stop of a driver in the 9500 block of Jones Creek Road on July 7, though the driver was not Nicholas or Amanda.
According to court documents obtained by FOX 2, Nicholas reportedly came out of his nearby home, yelled at a deputy and started approaching him while holding a screwdriver. The deputy initially ordered Nicholas to back away, then used pepper spray.
Per court documents, the deputy attempted to arrest Nicholas, who then struck him in the chest with the screwdriver. Amanda reportedly approached the deputy and pulled him away from Nicholas before both ran inside their home.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says the situation prompted an hours-long standoff involving negotiators, a SWAT team and a K-9 deputy. The situation led to Nicholas refusing warnings and being bitten by a K-9.
Nicholas and Amanda are both jailed in the Jefferson County Jail without bond. Nicholas is charged with first-degree assault on a special victim and armed criminal action. Amanda is charged with resisting/interfering with arrest.
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ST. LOUIS — The new St. Louis schools superintendent will be officially sworn into office today. Dr. Keisha Scarlett took over the job in July after the retirement of Dr. Kelvin Adams. She was assistant superintendent in the Seattle Public School District. The installation ceremony is at 6:15 p.m. before the regular school board meeting.
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ST. LOUIS — A gasoline tanker truck crashed into a Metro transit center near Riverview and Hall Streets early Tuesday morning and knocked over a power pole. The pole is leaning on other power lines. Police have the area blocked off here because there is a downed power line. Ameren and Metro crews are also on the scene.
The incident happened around 12:30 a.m. It’s still unclear exactly what caused the crash, but we do that there was a second vehicle somehow involved. The airbags on that second vehicle did deploy.
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Police at the scene have not been able to give us a lot of details. Metro officials tell FOX 2 that the transit center here is operating this morning for passengers and buses. Access to certain areas will be limited here as clean up unfolds.
A Metro spokesperson says half of the station isn’t being used right now because of safety issues. It isn’t impacting overall bus operations, everything is just happening on the other side of transit center.
The extent of the damage to the actual transit center is still unclear, but I’m told it does not appear to be extreme. A Metro spokesperson tells me there were no injuries to any metro workers or passengers. The tanker driver also was not injured.
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