Mother Overdoses In Massachusetts Family Dollar Store As 2-Year-Old Tries To Help Her [Video]
Video of a heroin addict allegedly overdosing in a Massachusetts discount store earlier this week is the strongest piece of evidence in an upcoming child endangerment case against her.
In the shocking visual, which was shared by FOX25 News, 36-year-old Mandy McGowen of New Hampshire is seen lying on the floor of a toy aisle inside of a Lawrence Family Dollar as her shrieking 2-year-old daughter tries, in vain, to wake her mother up. The young girl cries, screams, and pulls at McGowen’s sleeve frantically as the recording onlooker, a fellow Family Dollar shopper, somehow ignores the baby’s distress and relays in Spanish that the woman’s eyes are rolling into the back of her head.
Warning: the following visual might be disturbing for Inquisitr readers. Please proceed at your own risk.
Once officials arrived at the scene, they administered two doses of Narcan, an opiate antidote, to the unconscious McGowen. After awaking and denying that she had overdosed (she instead claimed that she had simply fallen asleep), she was confronted with several cut straws that had been found inside of a diaper bag with “white powdery residue around the tips of them.”
“She kept saying, ‘No, no,'” store clerk Nicaurys Anziani explained. “She did not want to go to the hospital.”
Nonetheless, both McGowen and her daughter were taken to a nearby health center to be properly attended to. While at the hospital, the Department of Children and Families seized the child and placed her in protective custody.
Police Capt. Roy Vasque, the head of the Lawrence Police Force Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit, expressed that scenes like the one McGowen was involved in are far too commonplace in his line of work.
“It’s definitely common for children [of addicts] to act in this way,” he says, “and we have seen this before.”
Chief James Fitzpatrick echoed Vasque’s statement.
“It’s very disturbing to see someone obviously in the matter of addiction where it overtakes someone,” he remarked to the Palestine Herald-Press, “where they’re not able to take care of their child, [thereby leaving] their child vulnerable.”
Fitzpatrick also touched on the actions of the person filming, stating that while he wished the man would have dropped the camera to help McGowen’s child, the video could at least help other parents who are also hardcore drug users.
“They can see firsthand the power of the narcotic and fentanyl,” he relayed. “She’s lucky to be alive and you see someone in the throes of addiction like that, and what they’re willing to sacrifice.”
McGowen is expected to be formally charged later this week. As of this posting, her daughter is still under the care of the DCF.
Interestingly, the video of McGowen’s overdose brings to mind another powerful image of drug abuse that was shared just recently by Ohio law enforcement. As reported by the Inquisitr in early September, photos of an heroin-addicted couple, James Acord, 47, and Rhonda Pasek, 50, inside of their car were posted online by the East Liverpool Police as a way to show those who partook in heroin use, “the other side of this horrible drug.”
Also in the images, a 4-year-old boy, said to be Pasek’s son, was seen in the back of the vehicle strapped into a car seat. After being revived by Narcan, the two were taken into police custody and charged with child endangerment and public intoxication. The 4-year-old was placed in the custody of Columbiana County Children’s Services, and as of this posting, is still in their care.
There is currently no word on any other family members who can look after McGowen’s young daughter.
[Featured Image by esolla/iStock by Getty Images]
