Cadets on Spring Break overdose at a Broward house, authorities say. An arrest is made
Six students overdosed Thursday with a powder possibly laced with fentanyl in a Wilton Manors home. Four were identified Friday as West Point cadets, the military academy said.
On Saturday, a West Point official, speaking anonymously due to the ongoing investigation, told The Associated Press that one of the cadets who was hospitalized is an Army football player. The official also told AP another football player at the house was not hospitalized but didn’t specify the sickened player’s condition.
Investigators from the Wilton Manors Police Department and Broward County Sheriff’s Office continue investigating this incident and have made an arrest.
Around 5 p.m. Thursday, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue was called to respond to an overdose situation in the 800 block of Northwest 29th Court, Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan said. When fire rescue arrived to the house, he said there were several people in the front yard and a person inside the home was trying to administer CPR.
Gollan, NBC6 reported, said four had taken a substance believed to be cocaine laced with fentanyl and their two friends were exposed to the fentanyl when they tried to give them CPR.
The six were found in different overdose states and were all taken to hospitals, Gollan said.
Four went to Broward Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale and two were transported to Holy Cross Health, also in Fort Lauderdale, according to police. By Friday, one had been released, two were in critical condition and on ventilators and three were in stable condition, police told the Sun Sentinel.
A seventh female patient was later transported to the hospital after feeling ill, police said.
A hazmat team went to the home to try to identify what the students had overdosed on. Authorities said they believe it was an unknown powder substance that could be laced with fentanyl.
“The U.S. Military Academy is aware of the situation involving West Point cadets, which occurred Thursday night in Wilton Manors, FL,” an academy spokesperson said in a statement. “The incident is currently under investigation and no other details are available at this time.”
West Point, the nation’s oldest military academy, trains cadets to serve as officers in the U.S. Army. Admittance into the academy requires a nomination from a U.S. House member or U.S. senator.
Gollan noted the home was a rental property being used by the cadets on their spring break. Their identities have not yet been released. West Point’s spring break is from March 4-13, according to the school’s academic calendar.
Neighbors told the Sun Sentinel that police were called the night before and the cadets had been there for at least a few days. They said the rental could fit 10 people and was a hot spot frequently booked, with holiday weekends seeing party crowds.
On Thursday night, Wilton Manors police shared a video on Twitter made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explaining the dangers of fentanyl, one of the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths. In the tweet, police said they wanted to warn “spring breakers about the dangers of using illicit drugs & to avoid mixing drugs with alcohol or other forms of drugs.”
“Protect yourself from the dangers of Fentanyl,” the tweet reads.
Miami Herald staff writer Michelle Marchante contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 6:56 PM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the number of students who were from West Point. Four of them are West Point cadets.
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