Bronx leaders, parents and law enforcement still face a fentanyl scourge a year after day care death

Just a few colorful decals remain on the padlocked door of the former Divino Niño Day Care center in the Bronx – the only sign that it was once a place where children played.

And a few steps away on the front gate on Morris Avenue, a few faded balloon strings serve as a reminder of a memorial for a child who died inside.

On the afternoon of Sept. 15, 2023, 22-month-old Nicholas Dominici and two other toddlers didn't wake up from their nap at the day care. Police said a kilogram of fentanyl was found under a trap door in the floor, directly beneath where the children were sleeping.

First responders later confirmed the children were suffering from fentanyl poisoning, and were able to save two of them by administering Narcan. Another child who'd been picked up earlier that day was also taken to the hospital and revived with Narcan. But for Dominici, it was too late. He'd somehow ingested some of the fentanyl that had touched his mat.

The day care's owner, her husband and another accomplice were arrested and charged with various federal crimes including conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death.

The events shook the Kingsbridge neighborhood, the borough, and the city – leading to calls for more stringent day care inspections and making parents anxious about leaving their kids in similar facilities. They also spurred a flurry of legislation to address child-care safety concerns.

One year later, at least one day care provider in the area said inspections had become more frequent and more thorough but officials didn't provide a specific number. A health department spokesperson said inspectors have always worked to make sure toxic substances were not accessible to children.

But no amount of inspection can guard the Bronx from what law enforcement officials and local leaders describe as a flood of fentanyl, aided by the borough's proximity to multiple highways.

"We have major challenges when it comes to drug activity, active drug use, active drug users in many parts of our borough," said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson in an interview.

Dominici's death still haunts parents who rely on home day care facilities – where children are supervised in the owner's apartment. It's also been hard on day care owners in the neighborhood who are trying to rebuild faith among parents.

"There's less trust," said Maria Salcedo, who runs My Sweet Day Care – just half a mile from the former Divino Niño Day Care facility where tragedy unfolded last year. "Parents, understandably, are asking for more photos of their kids' activities."

She said this year's inspections have been more thorough and stringent, and added that she has fewer kids in her care than before.

"If before we had one or two visits a year, now we have five or six," she said. "And they check everything, even the refrigerators."

Shari Logan, a spokesperson for New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said the incident caused "immeasurable pain as well as reflection and action," adding that the department has since conducted training with child care inspection staff, offered training to city-regulated child care providers and distributed naloxone kits to child care programs.

Home-based child care programs are regulated through New York state, and Logan said they cannot open without a "rigorous" inspection process.

The Divino Niño Day Care center had passed a surprise inspection just a few days before Dominici died – because city inspectors weren't required to check for fentanyl at the time, according to city Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan.

Logan could not specifically say whether inspectors now check day cares for the presence of fentanyl, but said inspectors do check for "substances that could be harmful."

"There's a checklist that the inspectors are given from when they go out and they do pop up or scheduled inspections," Gibson said. "It doesn't have a checkbox that says, 'look for a trap door.'"

She told Gothamist that Dominici's death "really highlighted gaps" in the system, and led to the introduction of a spate of new bills: one in the state Legislature that would require home day care providers to disclose any other adults living with them, and several others sponsored by city councilmembers, including one that would require the health commissioner to provide free opioid reversal kits and training to child care providers.

While Gibson said many borough parents were initially hesitant to send their children back to home day care facilities, the practice has continued – with many parents now taking matters into their own hands by visiting and investigating facilities before enrolling their kids.

Otoniel Feliz, Dominici's father, fought back tears during a press conference last year, offering advice to families after his son died.

"Don't trust the [day care] place 100%. Go as a surprise. Open doors. Open cabinets," he said. "Check where your children sleep. Check the pillows and mattresses. Because we don't know."

Gibson said reputable facilities are likely to welcome the scrutiny.

"I think providers were okay with that because you want to allay concerns that your parents and prospective clients would have," she said.

Tiny Blessings Day Care operates out of a third-floor apartment just across the street from the building that formerly housed Divino Niño. A worker there told Gothamist she didn't want to talk about the situation — something several day care operators nearby repeated when Gothamist tried to reach them.

It raised the bar in terms of the threat level, but also the expectation of law enforcement and its prosecution team to hold people accountable ... if we can't protect the most innocent, the youngest of our children, then what's left? Frank Tarentino III, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Division

Frank Tarentino III, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Division, said the agency is making strides to educate the public and aggressively prosecute those involved in drug trafficking in communities like Kingsbridge.

"We certainly have a lot of work left to do, but I can tell you that we're better today than we were a year ago when poor Nicholas died," he said. However, he acknowledged the Bronx remains a "safe haven" for drug traffickers due to its population density and proximity to highways leading to the rest of the Northeast.

Tarentino said the Divino Niño case was unlike anything he'd ever seen in his 26-year career.

"It raised the bar in terms of the threat level, but also the expectation of law enforcement and its prosecution team to hold people accountable," he said. "I think that really brought the awareness and the attention to this crisis ... if we can't protect the most innocent, the youngest of our children, then what's left?"

But the lethality of fentanyl and the use of social media to facilitate drug sales make it even harder to detect, Tarentino said.

More than 3,000 New Yorkers died of drug overdoses in 2023 – a number far greater than homicides and traffic fatalities combined, according to an annual report from New York City's Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor . The five neighborhoods with the highest rates of overdose deaths were all in the Bronx, the report showed.

Just days after Dominici died, investigators uncovered a major pill mill in an apartment on Heath Avenue, just six blocks away from the day care center. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at the time that it was one of the largest seizures of fentanyl in New York City's history — with more than 50 pounds recovered. Four people were arrested.

About a month after that, three people were arrested for allegedly selling cocaine, heroin and fentanyl out of a pizza shop in Soundview . Investigators recovered more than 100 pounds of narcotics with an estimated street value of $4 million.

"I've been working closely with many of our partners at the health department, health and hospitals, harm reduction services, drug treatment programs," Gibson said. "As much as we do, it's never enough."

Grei Mendez, the 36-year-old mother of four who operated the Divino Niño Day Care center and lived in the neighboring building, is awaiting trial in federal court for conspiracy and intent to distribute narcotics. She is facing additional charges of murder, manslaughter, criminal possession of a controlled substance and child endangerment in Bronx criminal court.

She declined an interview request from a reporter in August, and her lawyer David Bertan said he does not comment on ongoing cases. Mendez's lawyer told Gothamist last year that she was "paying for someone else's crime."

Mendez's husband, 35-year-old Felix Herrera Garcia, pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and serious bodily injury, one count of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death, and one count of possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in serious bodily injury, according to the Bronx district attorney.

Two weeks earlier, co-conspirator Renny Antonio Parra Paredes also pleaded guilty in connection with his role in distributing narcotics from the facility.

Neither of the men have been sentenced.

Herrera's cousin, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, was also charged. He had been renting a room inside the day care where inspectors found several kilo presses, which are used to compress drugs into powder form.

Morris Avenue is a quiet, residential block tucked away from the bustle of East Kingsbridge Road. Parents push their strollers past the building that once housed Divino Niño, and a look inside one of the former day care's back windows reveals it's being gut-renovated.

"Nobody really talks about it anymore," said Juan Garcia, who used to be the superintendent of the building. "No one could have imagined this."

On Sunday, the parents of Nicholas Dominici gathered with elected officials and community members for a vigil for the anniversary of the toddler's death, renaming the intersection of West Kingsbridge Road and Kingsbridge Terrace in his honor.

"I didn't even think about it as a provider – I put myself in the place of another mother," said daycare owner Salcedo. "Parents leave their whole lives at a daycare. And for them to do something like this is just incredible. It was terrible for us."