A person of interested was detained Thursday morning in connection with the overdose death of a student at Helen Bernstein High School earlier this week, according to a source close to the investigation.
The person of interest has not yet been identified by authorities.
The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office also identified the teenage girl who tragically died of an apparent overdose in a bathroom in the school as 15-year-old Melanie Ramos.
Ramos and another teenage girl were found on the Bernstein High campus around 9 p.m. on Tuesday, when a man went looking for his daughter after she did not return home from school.
The father went to the Bernstein High campus in Hollywood to search for his daughter, and found her in the courtyard of the school, suffering from an overdose.
The girl told her father that her friend — Ramos — was still inside the building. The man and a school employee found Ramos unresponsive in the restroom.
She was pronounced dead at the scene by Los Angeles Fire Department employees.
The man’s daughter was taken to a hospital and is OK as of Wednesday morning.
Police believe the two girls bought what they were told was Percocet — a prescription drug containing oxycodone, a narcotic, and acetominophen, the painkiller used in Tylenol.
The two girls made their purchase in Lexington Park, just south of Bernstein High, earlier that same day, according to police. When the two teenagers took the pills, they immediately felt ill.
According to the LAPD, someone was selling pills laced with fentanyl, which contributed to the two girls’ overdoses.
Two additional overdose victims were also found nearby on Tuesday, police said, and they are believed to be part of the same case. Those two victims have not been identified, but the LAPD said one is a teenage boy who went to another local high school. No information about the other, fourth total victim has been made available.
Those additional victims also purchased drugs in Lexington Park.
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho went to Bernstein High Wednesday morning to meet with the dead girl’s family. He lashed out at the scourge of drugs being sold to teen students, saying people have been selling narcotics in Lexington Park for weeks.
