Mass K2 Overdose in Brooklyn? At Least 33 Hospitalized, Police Say (UPDATES)

By SIMONE WILSON and JOHN V. SANTORE

Brooklyn, NY — A large group of New Yorkers found acting like zombies on the Bed-Stuy/Bushwick border Tuesday were being dragged to nearby hospitals all morning and afternoon in what could go down as the worst mass synthetic marijuana (K2) overdose in Brooklyn history, according to police and reporters on the scene.

By midnight, at least 33 patients had been hospitalized, according to the NYPD.

First, around 10 a.m., emergency medical responders rushed to 362 Stockton St. in Bed-Stuy — near the J-M-Z subway station at Broadway and Myrtle Avenue, an area that has become known as junkie central in recent months — where a group of people were overdosing.

Witnesses told DNAinfo that the victims "collapsed on the sidewalk and subway platforms around Broadway and Myrtle Avenue." Some were reportedly "breathing heavily and vomiting," while others "sat crumpled on the pavement."

The scare didn't stop there. By early afternoon, police and emergency responders were discovering more people in this zombie-like state in the area.

Another group of patients were picked up at Broadway and Lewis Avenue around 1 p.m. for "possible drug or alcohol abuse," a spokesman for the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) said.

While the FDNY would not confirm the cause of the emergency, an NYPD spokesman said those transported to area hospitals were believed to be suffering from K2 overdoses.

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Todd Maisel, a photographer for the New York Daily News, reported online that police at the scene were calling Tuesday's chaos in Bed-Stuy/Bushwick the "worst" apparent K2 overdose they'd ever witnessed.

Some overdosers were making threats to emergency responders trying to help them, Maisel said.

And the hallucinations sufferers were experiencing were reportedly powerful. A DNAinfo reporter at the scene said one of the patients was heard screaming, "It's burning me!" while he was sitting on the ground in handcuffs.

By the end of the day, 14 individuals had been taken to Woodhull Hospital, nine to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, five to Interfaith Medical Center and five to Brooklyn Hospital, the NYPD spokesman said.

All were eventually stabilized, according to the spokesman, with none expected to die.

The intersection of Broadway and Myrtle Avenue has been reported as the epicenter of K2 use in Bed-Stuy.

An employee at a 99 cent store down the street on Broadway, who declined to give his name, told Patch he saw people on drugs in the area "every day."

"It's a lot. They're smoking all day. It's crazy here," he said, outside the store. "They pee here every day. Everybody knows that this place is not safe right now."

DNAinfo also reported, based on an unnamed police source, that the drug is suspected to have been purchased from the Big Boy Deli, located at 928 Broadway — allegedly "the sole distributor" of the drug in the area.

A manager inside the business, who likewise declined to give his name, denied his store was selling drugs in a conversation with Patch.

"I don't know why they're staring at this store," he said.

He insisted that drug users have been getting their K2 elsewhere — "uptown," he said — and returning to the Broadway-Myrtle area to smoke.

Some locals, however, weren't buying it, with multiple people telling Patch that it was common knowledge that people buy K2 from Big Boy.

After one young man getting off the subway was told about the overdoses, he pointed angrily to the store.

"They are the ones!" he said, fuming. "They blood is on their hands."

A man named Adama, working at a small store across the street from Big Boy, said that K2 users have been "all over in the area, begging for money" for food. But when passerby give them money, he said, they use it for drugs instead.

"They smoke when they're hungry," Adama said.

Limping along the sidewalk, dragging one foot behind the other, Adama pantomimed the usual state of one such junkie. He said they often collapse in front of his store.

Although Adama has only been working at the store for five months, he said, "what I see is too much."

K2 is illegal in New York City. In May, the city reported that emergency room visits linked to K2 had fallen by 85 percent between July 2015 and March 2016.

Adams noted that the NYPD has had recent success against other drug distribution rings, including those selling heroin and cocaine. He said the war against K2 must be approached just as seriously.

"We need to treat this as a criminal enterprise," Adams said.

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.