‘It’s the devil.’ Fentanyl kills 5 in ‘nightmare’ scene at home, Colorado officials say

Officers who found five people dead of apparent fentanyl poisoning discovered a “nightmare” inside a Commerce City, Colorado, apartment, officials said.

“It looked like a mass homicide scene inside this apartment,” District Attorney Brian Mason of the 17th Judicial District told KDVR. “These five adults literally dropped where they took the drugs. This drug is frightening.”

The bodies of three women and two men were found on the floor next to a mirror with lines of drugs on it, Mason told The Colorado Sun. They died so quickly they had no time to call for help or aid each other.

A newborn baby, whose mother was one of the people who died, and a 29-year-old woman were found alive near the apartment when police arrived at 3:45 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, KUSA reported.

Dan Marquez, the father and father-in-law of three of those who died, told KMGH he was told the five thought they were ingesting cocaine, instead of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced cocaine.

“Fentanyl’s no good, man,” Marquez said. “It’s the devil. It must have just took them, just like that. All five of them.”

His stepdaughter found the bodies and notified police when she went to check on them after they stopped answering their phones, KMGH reported.

“I’m terrified that other people have these drugs from this particular dealer and they could ingest them and they could die,” Mason told Colorado Public Radio. “Fentanyl is dangerous and it’s lethal and it’s fast.”

He told KUSA that Colorado needs tougher laws on fentanyl, especially when deaths are involved. “It is ravaging our community,” he said.

This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 12:55 PM with the headline "‘It’s the devil.’ Fentanyl kills 5 in ‘nightmare’ scene at home, Colorado officials say."