DUBOIS, Pa. (GANT) – A DuBois man is facing felony charges for possessing a large amount of heroin at the site of an overdose death.
(This article was provided by our News Partner GantDaily.com.)
Sandy Township police responding to a report of a female overdosing on drugs at a Carson Avenue residence on March 28 encountered Patrick O’Brien, 36, trying to grab items from a desk while emergency personnel were performing CPR on the woman in a bedroom.
He was ordered to leave the room, which he did with an officer going with him. After an EMT told another officer he had seen an open knife on the desk prior to police arriving, the officer with O’Brien was advised of this.
Officers at the scene reportedly saw five pill bottles on a dresser with the woman’s name on them in the bedroom. Next to the bottles were stamp bags of suspected heroin, some of which were used while others were still full.
A few of the bags still had pieces of a green straw in them, indicating someone had been snorting the heroin.
The EMTs were then advised the 27-year-old woman may have overdosed on drugs.
On the desk, police reportedly saw an envelope containing a large sum of cash, and a scale with both green leafy and white powdery residue.
In all, there were 100 stamp bags of suspected heroin found in the bedroom, according to the affidavit.
After a loud crash was heard downstairs, an officer left the room to assist the officer that was with O’Brien.
That officer reported that O’Brien, who was sitting on the couch, jumped up and took off running to the basement stairs where he seemed to throw an item into the dark basement.
This officer was able to take O’Brien into custody but was aware that something that had been in O’Brien’s pocket was now missing.
O’Brien reportedly admitted he threw a metal container into the basement because he did not want police to find the heroin that was in it.
The container was recovered and inside officers located numerous bundles of drugs for delivery and a brick of stamp bags of heroin packaged for delivery, according to the report.
When asked what had happened that night, O’Brien said he believed the woman who was sitting at the desk had used several bags of heroin to shoot up before she laid down on the bed.
O’Brien continued to say that he then sat at the desk where he snorted a bag of heroin.
He said he left her to go downstairs to get some food and when he came back, she did not appear to be breathing.
O’Brien told investigators that he put his head on her chest and couldn’t hear anything. When he saw her lips had turned blue, he yelled for help and called 911, police said.
In response, another man at the residence came into the room and tried to perform life-saving measures on her.
This witness reported to police that O’Brien kept pushing him away and would not let him perform CPR on the woman.
The woman was unable to be revived by emergency responders, according to the affidavit.
O’Brien is charged with a felony count of manufacture/delivery/possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, and misdemeanor counts of tampering with physical evidence and obstructing the administration of law.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 15 before District Judge Pat Ford at his DuBois office. O’Brien is free on $50,000 bail.
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