MIAMI – Many questions remain about a 10-year-old Miami boy who died most likely from an opioid overdose.
Authorities said Alton Banks had fentanyl in his system June 23 when he died, and now investigators are trying to determine how he came in contact with the drug.
Authorities said the fifth grader went swimming in a pool in Overtown and felt sick after he got home.
"We was jumping in, and he swallowed water. Then he went home," Alton's friend, identified only as Fenell, 13, said.
Once Alton arrived home, he started feeling ill.
"When he came home, they said he was throwing up, and he went to bed," neighbor Jessie Davis said.
Alton was later found unconscious by his mother.
"She went upstairs where he was and she said, 'Alton, stop playing. Wake up, wake up, wake up,' and she said he wouldn't wake up, and I guess that's when they called fire rescue," Alton's grandmother, identified only as Mrs. Hill, said.
Paramedics took Alton to a hospital, where he died.
"About an hour later, that's when I seen all the police and yellow tape," a witness said.
Alton's grandmother told Local 10 News reporter Terrell Forney that authorities initially told the family that they believed Alton died from "dry drowning," a term that refers to people who die from complications after breathing in water.
"That's what we were told at first, that it was dry drowning," Hill said.
Toxicology reports showed that Alton might have died from an overdose.
"At this point, we have every reason to believe preliminarily that it was a mix of fentanyl and heroin that killed this boy. We don't know where he got it," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said.
Fentanyl is a lethal drug, proving to be 80 times more potent than heroin. Addiction experts said just a tiny amount for a child can be deadly.
"A very, very small dose, less than a size of an eighth of a teaspoon of salt would be enough to harm an adult, let alone a small child," Lissa Franklin said.
Investigators don't believe the child came in contact with the drug at home.
Fentanyl has become a popular drug sold on the streets, and South Florida fire rescue officials said there's been a spike in overdoses in the past year.
Alton is the youngest victim to die as a result of the opioid crisis.
"It's important to continue to talk about it," Franklin said. "This is absolutely horrific. It should not have happened to this young man."
Detectives believe Alton might have unknowingly touched the drug.
They are continuing to try to piece together the child's final few hours to see how he came in contact with the lethal drug.