More suspected heroin overdoses reported
Washington police said three people reportedly overdosed on heroin Monday, less than 24 hours after officers responded to five overdoses in just over an hour Sunday night that left one person dead.
A city resident is organizing a rally and march to be held Aug. 29 to call attention to the growing heroin problem.
Police Chief Chris Luppino said the overdoses Monday and one of the five Sunday can be linked to a particular stamp of heroin. The city’s overdoses were among 17 calls first responders answered Sunday for reported overdoses throughout Washington County. An Amwell Township woman also died of a suspected heroin overdose Sunday and another was reported Monday morning in Charleroi.
Luppino said police responded to the women’s restroom inside Walgreen’s, 99 Jefferson Ave., after an employee found 26-year-old Jessica Neal of 214 ½ Wilson Ave., Washington, unconscious in one of the stalls. Locked inside the stall with her was her 2-year-old daughter, who was sitting in a stroller. A needle and two stamp bags of suspected heroin were found in her hand and a second needle was found in her purse.
Neal faces a charge of child endangerment, Luppino said. Washington County Children and Youth Services was notified and a caseworker released the girl to her father. Washington County Adult Probation also was notified because Neal is on probation after entering a plea in June before District Judge Joshua Kanalis to access device fraud. At her hearing, she was ordered to undergo drug and alcohol screening and treatment.
Earlier in the day, officers were called to the Splish Splash car wash, 1100 Jefferson, for a report of two unconscious men in a vehicle parked inside one of the automated wash bays.
“A woman had pulled up to the bay behind their vehicle, which was in the car wash,” Luppino said. “She paid for car wash, but when the cycle was done, the other vehicle didn’t move so she got a manager. The two had nodded off.”
Matthew Pockl, 25, of Wheeling, W.Va., and his passenger, David Glendenning, 42, of 601 Park Ave., Washington, were revived by ambulance personnel. Luppino said one of the men still had a needle in his arm. City police found four empty stamp bags and multiple needles inside the vehicle, the chief added.
Seeing the destruction that heroin addiction is causing in his hometown, affecting young people he once coached in sports, Mike Markley is organizing the inaugural Fight Against Heroin March and Rally. Participants will meet at 2 p.m. Aug. 29, at the 7th Ward playground on Shirls and Donnan avenues and march to the 8th Ward playground at the corner of Broad Street and Baird Avenue.
“It saddens me to see what is taking place every day in my beloved city,” Markley said. “I think increased awareness will help in the fight against heroin.”
“Some of the kids I coached in football and baseball have been sucked in by heroin,” he added. “I want people to recognize if they do it what the consequences are so they might think twice about using heroin.”
Markley said that he hopes to organize the rally and march every few months.