A Surprise man faces multiple charges in the dead of a baby who died from a suspected drug overdose last weekend.
Around 8 a.m. on Saturday, Surprise Police and Fire-Medical crews were called to a home on Columbine Drive, near 151st Avenue and Cactus Road, for reports of a 1-year-old boy who wasn’t breathing.
Roderick Begay (Photo Credit: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)
When paramedics arrived, they began CPR immediately on the child. The boy was rushed to a hospital where reports showed traces of fentanyl in his system. The boy died around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning due to organ failure and brain death.
According to police report, 37-year-old Roderick Begay and his wife informed officers the child sleeps in the crib next to their bed and woke up around 3 a.m. wheezing and crying. The couple reported they picked the boy up and brought him to their bed where he eventually fell back asleep around 4 a.m. They reported his breathing returned to normal. When the couple woke up around 8 a.m. they noticed that the child wasn’t breathing.
Police discovered narcotics in the home and arrested Begay on multiple charges relating to the child’s death, including manslaughter, child abuse, endangerment, and misconduct with weapons, prohibited possessor. An investigation is currently ongoing. Details were not released as to the relation Begay had to the baby.
Per court documents, Begay is a known fentanyl user. After obtaining a search warrant, detectives allegedly found a jewelry box in a home office with blue pills believed to be fentanyl. Additional pills were discovered in Begay’s truck, along with a gun. Begay is prohibited from owning firearms due to a past conviction. Police found additional drug paraphernalia at the home.
Begay reportedly admitted that the blue pills in the home were in fact fentanyl. He told officers that he would illegally purchase them to treat his chronic back pain. Begay also informed officers he kept an additional small box of fentanyl pills in the home office that he left on the desk, which was within reaching distance to the child.
Begay was booked into the Maricopa County jail on charges. No additional information has been released in the case.
