By Robert J. Hansen | OBSERVER Staff Writer
From 2021 to date, over 800 people have died from fentanyl related deaths in Sacramento County, according to the coroner’s office.
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho held a town hall in Elk Grove on Feb. 27 to address Sacramento’s growing fentanyl crisis.
“That’s more than all the gun related homicides in the last decade,” Ho told a crowd of about 50 people.
Ho said that people aged 14 to 21 have been most impacted by the wave of fentanyl deaths. His office has informed over 100,000 students in Sacramento high schools about the dangers of fentanyl through educational programs in the past three years.
“What is happening is that kids are going on Instagram, Snapchat and they’re going out to essentially get some drugs,” Ho said. “What they don’t know is that 99% of the drugs that are on the street are counterfeits and 99% of them are laced with fentanyl.”
In 2021, 215 people died from fentanyl poisoning, 16% of whom were Black. The overall number of victims who died in 2023 from fentanyl poisoning skyrocketed to 372 – an increase of about 75%, according to an OBSERVER analysis of coroner data.
Eighty-nine Black people died from fentanyl poisoning in 2023 – 24% of all fentanyl related deaths, a significant increase from 2021 and 2022.
Ho said fentanyl kills people from all backgrounds, ages and ethnic backgrounds.
“It doesn’t matter what race or creed, it doesn’t matter if you live in a gated community or whether you live in section 8 housing, it affects all of us and it’s hitting our children the most,” Ho said.
Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said she believes crime is out of control in California and public safety is among her top priorities.
“It’s these partnerships that we have with not only the District Attorney’s office, Sheriff Jim Cooper and our police department, this is part of the ongoing efforts we really pride ourselves in,” Singh-Allen said at the town hall.
Ho said that his office is creating a fentanyl rapid response team and is prosecuting four individuals for murder for selling fentanyl to people who later died.
The rapid response team will be made up of Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Agency, county sheriff agents to investigate fentanyl poisonings and overdoses.
“What we are trying to find is the person who sold those drugs,” Ho said.
The District Attorney’s office said one of the individuals is a juvenile so their information is confidential.
Ruslan Kochkin, 35, was arrested Jan. by Folsom police and is being charged with murder, possession for sale and purchase for sale fentanyl and possession for purpose of sale methamphetamine.
His next court date is in April.
Ronald Ehman, 45, has been charged with murder and was arrested by Folsom police in July. He has court on March 13.
Dante Robinson, 20, has been charged with murder and in Dec. was also arrested by Folsom police.