LARGO — Fourteen people, including several first responders, were treated Thursday evening after Largo police said they were exposed to a narcotic while answering a welfare check at the Oasis at Bayside apartments off Ulmerton Road, Chief Mike Loux said.
Five of those people were taken to the hospital, Loux told Bay News 9. The call came in just after 6 p.m. when the girlfriend of Richard Charles, 30, asked officers to check on him. She told police he was acting irrationally — pacing, screaming, smoking marijuana and talking gibberish, the chief said.
When officers arrived, Loux said Charles was naked and acting aggressively. Officers struggled with him before taking him into custody. Afterward, one officer began feeling the effects of a narcotic and passed out. Narcan was used to revive him, according to Loux.
A medic and two other officers who helped take Charles into custody also began feeling ill, as did two medics who transported Charles to the hospital and two officers who rode with him, Loux said. Largo Fire Rescue’s hazardous materials team decontaminated officers at the scene.
“Certainly our officers are in peril every day when they’re dealing with subjects,” Loux said. “They have fentanyl, PCP, any of these kind of light dusty narcotics. Just a small amount could injure, kill you… our officers deal with it all the time so certainly it’s a concern, but this is the first major incident like this that we’ve had.”
Only one apartment at Oasis at Bayside was affected, and no residents had to be evacuated, the chief said. Hazmat crews checked the air quality inside the unit and found it clear. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office clandestine lab team was examining the apartment to determine whether narcotics were inside the home or only on Charles.
Police said Thursday night it was not yet known what substance sickened the people who were treated. Local television reports Friday morning said the investigation was continuing and that charges could follow. Tampa Bay 28 reported the welfare check address as 7 Glades Circle, the Oasis complex’s street address off Ulmerton Road.
Largo police and fire officials have not released a fuller list of the people treated beyond the five taken to hospitals. Anyone who thinks they were exposed at the scene should seek medical care and contact Largo police, the department has said through local coverage of the incident.