Two Santa Rosa teenagers died and two others were hospitalized Saturday after overdosing on what police believe was fentanyl.
On Sunday, the suspected drug dealer was arrested.
Police were called at around 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, to a home near the fairgrounds by a person who had entered the house after no one answered the door. A 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man were found unresponsive in a bed and were declared dead at the scene, said a police press release.
That morning, around 5:15 a.m., two girls aged 14 and 16 had been hospitalized because of a suspected fentanyl overdose.
Police investigators believe the four bought what they thought was cocaine, but “was most likely fentanyl” or cocaine laced with fentanyl, said the press release.
Around 12:45 p.m. Sunday, the suspected dealer — a 21-year-old man — was found in his car in a parking lot about a mile from the victims’ home.
The police said they found in the car plastic baggies with a distinctive logo that linked the man to the drugs in the overdose.
He was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of crimes including two counts of second-degree homicide and was being held without bail.
The girl who died had been a student at Santa Rosa High School and the young man a student at Montgomery High. The schools of the hospitalized girls were not made public.
Santa Rosa City Schools sent a message to families Sunday acknowledging that police were investigating the deaths of four students or former students: Saturday’s overdose victims; a 19-year-old former student also thought to have overdosed; and a 21-year-old man believed to have died from natural causes.