Father arrested after daughter overdoses on fentanyl, deputies say

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) - A man was arrested on Saturday in connection with the overdose of his 1-year-old daughter.

According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, a 1-year-old girl was taken to the hospital after discovering she had been exposed to fentanyl. Before taking her to a hospital, emergency staff had to administer two doses of Narcan to stabilize her.

Arrest documents said the girl's mother told deputies that she saw the child walking toward her bedroom carrying a small plastic bag with white residue. The mother took the bag and asked Shaughnessy Johnson, 27, if anything was in it and he allegedly said it was empty.

Arrest documents said Johnson is the child's father.

When Johnson was interviewed by deputies, he said he was in another room and didn't see his daughter walking around, arrest documents said. He also allegedly said the child was in another room when the mother asked him about the bag.

Johnson told deputies that when he entered the kitchen 15 minutes later, he saw his daughter nodding off and unresponsive, according to arrest documents.

When deputies asked Johnson about the location of the bag, he allegedly said that he had thrown it away and that the bag had three pills in it which he had consumed a week ago, arrest documents said.

Deputies went to search for the bag in the dumpster of Johnson's apartment but could not find the bag due to it being dark, according to arrest documents.

The child was eventually discharged from a hospital, the arrest documents said. Johnson was arrested and charged with second-degree cruelty to juveniles, obstruction of justice and possession of scheduled II (fentanyl).