Police: Arrest after teen ODs and dies in school bathroom

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police on Thursday arrested two teenage boys in connection with the death of a 15-year-old girl who overdosed in a restroom at her high school after buying pills possibly laced with fentanyl on campus, authorities said.

Police served a search warrant around 8:30 a.m. as part of an investigation into the overdose death of a girl a day earlier at Bernstein High School in Hollywood, police Chief Michel Moore said.

A 15-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother was taken into custody on suspicion of manslaughter, Moore said. Investigators believe he sold pills touted as Percocet to two 15-year-old friends around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday who later crushed and snorted the narcotics in the restroom at their school.

The Los Angeles County Coroner identified the student who died as Melanie Ramos, 15. Her unidentified friend who also overdosed remained hospitalized and was expected to recover.

Moore said police also arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of selling fentanyl-laced pills to two other high school students who suffered overdoses after buying the drugs at nearby Lexington Park. He could face narcotics-related charges, the chief said.

Police will work with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to find the distributors who provided the 15- and 16-year-old boys with the pills, Moore said.

“There is a drug organization behind this,” he said.

The teen suspects knew each other, and both attend Apex Academy, an independent charter school that shares a campus with Bernstein.

Dealers lacing common painkillers with fentanyl is an increasingly common practice, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference.

“These are not overdoses. These are people who have been poisoned,” Garcetti said. "One pill can kill.”

Officers were called to Bernstein...