POUGHKEEPSIE – A City of Poughkeepsie police officer is home recovering after suffering from a fentanyl exposure experienced while searching a suspect on Wednesday. The suspect is back in society after receiving an appearance ticket.
The officer was assigned to a Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) detail when he was alerted to a vehicle in the parking lot of an auto parts store on Mill Street with two occupants using drugs. The officer approached the vehicle and ordered the two subjects, a man and a woman, out of the vehicle and began searching the man. The officer removed a foil packet from the man’s front pocket, opened it to determine the contents, and began to feel light-headed and felt the signs of an “altered state,” according to City of Poughkeepsie Police Captain Rich Wilson.
Wilson said his officer immediately radioed for additional units and assistance for what he believed was fentanyl exposure as the result of investigating the foil packet. The officer carries Narcan to routinely reverse opioid overdose and exposure symptoms in other victims but self-administered it Wednesday with little effect. Within moments of hearing the officer asking for help on the radio, several police units responded to the scene with a sergeant arriving on the scene first. The sergeant recognized that the officer was in a serious medical crisis and put him in a patrol vehicle and raced him to the hospital.
Once there, the officer collapsed and other officers rushed him into the emergency department at MidHudson Regional Hospital. The staff immediately administered additional Narcan and the officer began to stabilize. After further treatment and evaluation, he was released. The officer is home recovering from the effects of the exposure and the naloxone.
The suspect who had the fentanyl has been identified as 35-year-old David Reid, with no known address. He was arrested and charged with the misdemeanors of criminal possession of a controlled substance and reckless endangerment. He was issued an appearance ticket and released from police custody.
