Two arrested for drug overdose of two-year-old boy in East Grand Forks

EAST GRAND FORKS, M.N. (Valley News Live) - A man and woman are behind bars connected to the opioid overdose of a young child.

East Grand Forks Police were called to an apartment complex at 205 3rd St. NW around 10:30 a.m. on March 9 by the child’s father, 25-year-old Taylor Paul, who stated his 2-year-old son was choking. Chief Mike Hedlund says his officers and other first responders realized ‘fairly quickly something was out of the ordinary’ when they arrived. Court documents say the young boy was laying on the floor unresponsive and had labored breathing, which prompted police believed he did not choke, but overdosed on drugs. Emergency medical personnel administered Narcan to the child and were able to revive him.

24-year-old Samantha Jacquemart, who stated she was the child’s step mother, was interviewed by police and stated she and Paul were addicted to fentanyl. She stated they used fentanyl around four that morning and then passed out, and didn’t know how the child could have gotten into their drugs.

When officers executed a search warrant on the apartment unit, court documents state they found a piece of burnt tinfoil, drug paraphernalia, a small quantity of suspected marijuana, two pills, $422 in cash, a plastic baggie and tinfoil, a plastic baggie containing some white powder later determined to be fentanyl, and 26 “M30″ pills which usually contain fentanyl and have been connected to several overdoses in the Red River Valley throughout the years.

Court documents allege Paul later told investigators that he and Jacquemart purchased nearly 100 fentanyl pills containing fentanyl from his source in Dilworth, Minn. the night before, and then sold the pills to approximately five different people each day at the apartment they were staying in.

Both Jacquemart and Paul are charged in Polk County Court with endangerment of a child, as well as second and third-degree controlled substance crime charges, as the apartment they both sell and use drugs in is within 300 feet of the Sacred Heart Elementary and High School, which is a prohibited zone.

The 2-year-old child’s condition is unknown as of this publication.

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