(siren wailing) (police radio chattering) – He says, “I think I’m gonna die.” – [Police Officer] Are you mom? – Yes. – [Police Officer] So they’re doing everything they can for him right now. – Actually, a part of me did die October the third. I said, mom, I knew that he was gone. – There really are no words for this kind of grief and this kind of pain. – It literally feels like you’re being pulled apart. – [Police Officer] Do you know what he may have taken? – I don’t know. He spent the night over here. This is his friend’s house. – You need to go find that dumb ass kid in there. His ass is the one that knows what they took. – [Police Officer] Did he take fentanyl or anything? Huh? – I didn’t know it was fentanyl. – [Police Officer] What was it? What was it supposed to be? – We took perc. – [Police Officer] Percocet? – [Speaker 1] It’s like playing Russian roulette. People are dying from their mistakes. – I would do anything to prevent this terrible pain and hurt from happening to anybody else. – My son just made a terrible decision, but that decision should not have cost him his life. – One pill. – One pill. – One pill. – One pill can kill. (dramatic music) – Every time I speak, I’m a little nervous. I brought Major’s backpack with me as a safekeeping today. (indistinct chattering) – Here with a very special message, Ms. Rhonda Manning, please. (audience applauding) (sirens wailing) – October 3rd, 2023 is a day that I relive every day. That weekend Major had turned 17. ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday ♪ – I love you, son. (Rhonda laughing) – On Monday, he asked if he could spend the night with this friend’s home in our community. I get a phone call and it’s his friend’s mom, and she tells me that Major isn’t breathing. The first thing, all I did is say, did you call 911? And we could hear sirens. My husband, my daughter, and myself were going up the stairs, but instantly something inside said, don’t go. And instead, I just went outside and I just started praying and just walking around the neighborhood. But this lady approached me and she says, “Can I give you a hug?” But she hugged us like she knew us. And sometimes I think, as crazy it may sound, I’m thinking it was Major basically giving me a hug goodbye. Never seen her before, never seen her after. But she gave me a hug and I needed that hug. (melancholic music) – Emily is my firstborn daughter. I had her just after graduating nursing school. Stay in there, baby. She was with me the whole time. So I graduated and six days later, I had her. The day I learned Emily passed away was September 5th, 2023. My younger daughter called to tell me. I thought she was calling me to wish me a happy birthday. So I was shocked. So that’s how I spent my birthday, contacting the coroner’s office, the sheriff, trying to get some information, asking if I could go to where she was. Then I got to Lodi and went to her room and saw what had happened and it was horrible. I just screamed. (melancholic music) – Early one morning, it was something like 1:48 in the morning, I get a phone call. The phone rings. I don’t know who’s calling me at this hour. It can’t be good. He introduced himself as a emergency room doctor, Irvine Medical Center. I heard the word fentanyl and I heard the words a catastrophic brain injury. I remember asking him, well, can we see her? And he said, “Of course.” Had the longest six-hour drive you can ever imagine. And we got down there at daylight and then we saw her and there was a machine there that had a flat line on it. That was her brain wave, so the brain wasn’t working anymore. – We got to hold Sophia’s hand and tell her that we loved her. But it was very tough day with her lack of brain activity. It was clear that it was going in one direction, but there was medical tests that had to be done. – We spent that entire day just walking through this protocol or this process. Not for her to get better, but for her to be declared dead. – Fentanyl is our number one criminal killer. It’s far higher than what we see in violence, homicides. So many of our fentanyl overdose victims do fit into this middle class. It hits home that, oh yeah, this could happen to me. This could happen to my kids. – It’s very easy for young people and for parents to hear terrible things in the news, hear about fentanyl, hear about death, and dismiss it because it’s not a thing that happens to them. I never thought that this was a threat to us. – I am a nurse and the fentanyl that I know is used in surgery and anesthesia doctors give it. But the fentanyl that’s being used on the street now is a whole other thing. It is not the medicinal kind. And I hadn’t heard too much of it until probably not too soon before Emily passed away. Why do we not know this? How does this just happened behind a door? – We have no idea fentanyl is taking lives after I started reading and Googling and I’m like, what is fentanyl? – Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. Individuals have found a way to manufacture the same drug, but clandestinely. – Now, the fentanyl that we’re seeing is far from being created by experienced pharmacists. Would not be unusual for us to see kitchen labs, equipment such as blenders being used and pots and pans, and tends to lump. Because it’s not spread out equally, there’s very hot doses that are lethal and very dangerous in our community. Individual could split the same pill. One would be fine, one individual could be killed. (bright music) – Just looking at family shots of everybody that loved Chris and everybody that he loved, just loved life. He loved having fun. We found out it was about nine o’clock at night and so we had to come over and tell her. And I just remember my mom saying, “Jenny, sit down.” And I’m like, no, what? My dad, he barely got the word Christopher out of his mouth, and I knew. And needless to say, none of us have been the same since. In this case, I’m assuming he thought he was getting an anti-anxiety medication from somebody he thought he could trust, and not realizing what was in it. The autopsy said that he was found in a praying position. It gives me goosebumps because he felt something was not right, and he likely got on his knees and started to pray. I mean, it helps knowing where he is, but I’m selfish and I want him still here with me. (brooding music) – This is Major’s bedroom, which is now our Major Movement office. This is the picture that we had at Major’s celebration of life. The high school invited my husband and I to receive Major’s honorary diploma. One of our neighbors here that live in Mountain House, she did the logo on there and put his name and on the back, Forever 17. And then also the high school dedicated the yearbook in his honor. They had us write something to Major. You will never be forgotten and forever be remembered in a major way. Major’s personality is more subtle. His main thing was sitting in the room playing video games and making his music. This is Major’s ashes in these little earphones. So I carry that with me and he’s with me always and always will be. He’s my baby. And so he wanted to go to art school and we had discussed and we were like, Major, I said one thing about music is you could play music for commercials for TV and things like that. And he was like, “That’s cool. You’re right.” And he titled a song before his passing that we weren’t aware of called “Archangel”. When they put his music on a commercial, in the bottom of that commercial and said Major Manning, “Archangel,” for me, I looked up and I said, “Son, your music made it.” – I like this because it shows the kind of fun that we all had together. – [Miriam] Yeah. – And you can just see all of… Both Sam and Sophie that these are real moments of joy for them. Sophie was the kind of person that gravitated towards kids that felt isolated themselves and she always had an interest in befriending them and being kind to them and helping them. Sophia was a committed Jewish person. She was raised here at Temple Israel. – Sophia is up there. – Flag up here. Sophia’s name is right up here. All the children in our community that have gone through that bar mitzvah have had their names put up here. Sophia was, I think a very capable student and a committed student. – She was in mock trial for four years and two of the years, she was nominated by her team as the top defense team member. As an attorney and knowing that she was interested in following in my footsteps, I was very proud of her. She was in her middle of her junior year at UC Irvine. Her girlfriend had bought what they thought was Percocet to celebrate the end of the quarter. – The story we got was that they bought this pill, came home. Sophie was the first one to try it. She tried it, she died. – Paramedics gave Narcan, but it was too late. She was basically brain dead almost immediately. (suspenseful music) – The number of deaths that we see is striking. Fentanyl is an extraordinarily potent opioid drug. It acts like heroin. It acts like morphine, but it’s much, much, much more potent in those. Sometimes fentanyl is pressed into a pill and sold as something else. So oftentimes it’s sold as Xanax. It may be sold as oxycodone. You have no idea what amount of drug actually is in that tablet. What happens is you develop respiratory distress. Your heart’s continuing to pump blood to those lungs that you’re not using. And because of that, fluid will accumulate in the lungs and that fluid leads to pulmonary edema, poor exchange of oxygen, anoxia, which is the lack of oxygen to the brain. And then ultimately, that’s gonna result in that person’s death. The last doctor you ever want to be examined by is the medical examiner. And the chances are that if you do use those types of pills that you buy on the street, you may not wake up the next day. You may come see me and that should never happen. (door slamming shut) – These are examples of what a lethal dose of cocaine would be that somebody would have to consume in order to overdose. So estimate about five grams. And this baggie here is an example of what a lethal dose of fentanyl would contain. Can barely see it. I tried to do my best to even weigh it out. This is probably more than two milligrams. – My son did not intend to die. We actually had a conversation where he said to me, “By the time I’m 30, my goal is to have a actual brick and mortar church and be the pastor of the church.” The day he left, and he said he loved me and we hugged, but I thought I’d see him next time. For his one-year anniversary of his passing, we put up a fentanyl kills billboard in town and with his picture. So it’d be honoring him while also spreading awareness. And from there, it really captured the attention of news media and the district attorney. It just grew bigger and bigger, like a snowball going downhill. And it started, my friend and I, we would just sit on the busy road with some signs and just to spread awareness. It was just the two of us to now where we do full on rallies. The support and the community that we get, it’s amazing. – This trophy was one of many that Emily earned during her high school years in speech and debate. Emily could get up and talk about anything with anyone. She traveled around the globe with no fear. You just sit back and go, gosh, that’s my daughter. So proud. So this is the nun on roller skates, ’cause this was her personality, fun and silly. She collected keys. Over the 18 months that she’s passed away, I have taken them with me on my travels and revisit some of the places that we went and then leave little pieces of her there. I didn’t get to see her be an old person. So that’s why I can’t quit now. I still have work to do for her, and somebody needs to speak up and say the awful things. We can’t pretend like it didn’t happen. We certainly can’t pretend like they didn’t exist. That’s not an option for me. – All right then. (audience applauding) – He’d get on any stage anywhere and sing. He was not shy. He was totally opposite to his mom. – Yeah. – Well, how old was he when he did that performance? – Three. – Yeah, he was three. – Three or four. – It was a church talent show and he wanted to sing “Let Me Entertain You”. (audience applauding) (upbeat music) – Hello, everybody. My name is Chris. What’s yours? (audience cheering) – In front of hundreds of people, but they all clapped and he just loved it. He loved to be the center of attention. I’m not a sinner. ♪ Let me entertain you ♪ ♪ Let me make you smile ♪ (audience applauding) – He just loved life. No matter how old he was, he just enjoyed life. – After Sophia was declared medically dead, she was kept alive for a few more days and it was determined that her organs could be donated. The incredibly bittersweet moment that I didn’t know would happen, they announced over the hospital intercom an honor walk. There were probably 100 hospital workers, doctors, nurses, psych techs, x-ray techs, that lined the hallway to honor Sophia’s giving of her organs. We followed the ambulance to this other location and were able to continue to spend time with her during the process of the surgery where they remove her organs. They play songs that Sophia loved. So of course, Hamilton, One Direction, Miley Cyrus. – I have an image of the very first moment of her life as she’s being birthed of her face and the very last moment of her life, of her face. And they form a kind of bookmark in my mind. And I feel I’m kind of doomed to compare the two faces. – Social media is a huge issue with the sales and distribution of not only fentanyl, but all drugs now. It is an easy way to get the attention of our younger generation because every child, every teenager has Facebook, has X, has Instagram, has Snapchat. – Through the power of our phones, through the power of our computers, tablets, people can reach out to individuals, have drugs delivered to their house thinking that they’re getting non-lethal pills and not realizing that the person they’re talking to may actually be a member of a cartel or someone that doesn’t have their best interest in mind. They have high faith in the internet and they’re trusting that they’re getting actually what they’re ordering. – They can have things delivered at home. You’ll never know. They know of everything. These kids know it all. My nephew at that time was 11 years old in elementary and he was like, “Oh no, we’ve heard of the percy 30s,” and me and my brother were like, what? – A 15-year-old kid is not gonna want to stick a needle into their arm that they know is heroin and say, “Yeah, I’m gonna try this for the first time.” But their friend’s gonna say, “Hey, try this perc, try this Percocet. It’s gonna give you a nice little high.” And then they take it and it’s the last time they take it. – So we’ve come to understand that she didn’t overdose on a drug she was trying to use for recreational purposes. She was poisoned, right? Because she thought she was using one substance, but she was secretly being given a different substance by somebody else. – When fentanyl is now being disguised as candy, when it’s being disguised as over-the-counter pills, when it’s being disguised as non-lethal pills, this is a poisoning of our community and is one of our most serious health concerns that we have right now. – I got to get this word out. It’s time to start a movement, a major movement. It’s time for us to start fighting fentanyl in a major way. I don’t want another child, I don’t want another family to experience what we’re experiencing. Let me tell somebody just if it’s gonna help save a life, because I know that my son would want to save another person’s life. When I speak to the kids, to parents, it’s truly coming from a higher power, and that’s God. And I always say every morning, God, thank you. Thank you for giving me the strength that you’ve given me. Thank you that I haven’t lost my mind. Sometime I could hear major’s little voice say, “Mom, you could do it. You could do it, mom.” And that keeps me going. That keeps me going. (brooding music) Hello, everyone. My name is Rhonda Manning and I’m Major’s mom. Some of you may be saying who is Major. Major was my 17-year-old son who attended Mountain House High School. And on fall break, he spent the night at a friend’s home in our community and they took what they thought was a prescription Percocet pill. And my son never woke up, so he never came home. It took his life. So my mission is to share with you guys as my son would want me to. not only is Fentanyl a pill kill, it did kill. My son had no idea, I’m sure. I heard someone behind me say when they walked in, but they didn’t know Fentanyl was in pills. And it is. My son probably didn’t know that either. My son got a pill from someone he thought was his friend he went to elementary school with. So you can’t trust ’cause those friends don’t know where they’re getting it from. Say no to your friends. It’s important. You have a chance and your life matters. Major’s life matter. And our motto is, we’re fighting fentanyl in a major way. So please help me fight fentanyl in a major way in honor of my son, Major. Thank you. (audience applauding) – People should not take a pill and just die. No child, no adult should ever, ever go through that. – When they were explaining it to us, it honestly scared me because I do know people who unfortunately do use drugs like that. – My cousin died from a fentanyl overdose. And it’s good that they’re bringing awareness to it. He didn’t want to die. He took a pill wanting to have a good time and he lost his life because of it. – And then when you finally see someone who’s gone through it and who are affected by it, and it really hits you. – Okay, group hug, group hug. – Thank you so much. – [Rhonda] You’re welcome. I said I cannot stay in this level of grief for all this time. I can’t do it. It will literally kill me. I can’t do it. I am doing the thing that I swore I wouldn’t do, which is be an advocate. Get up in front of people and speak because I just don’t want this to be my life all the time. It’s just too awful. But I’m doing it. So this is Emily’s tree and her ashes are here. This is a plaque that we had made for her with a little poem. And when I come to town, I visit the tree and talk to her for a minute. And depending on the season, I might put some fresh flowers there. But it’s spring and something needs to stay alive. So I’m planting. And for me, it’s not so much the flower, but the process of digging in the dirt, feeling like I’m touching her just a little bit when I do that. And whenever I come, I bring a little key. So I stick that in with the flowers. I’m not ready for her voice to be gone. I’m not ready for her name not to be shouted from the rooftops. – Our policy here in the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office is a three-pronged approach. And that’s through education, early intervention, and enforcement. Our goal is to get the drug trafficking organizations off of the street. If you sell fentanyl in San Joaquin County, we will prosecute you for murder. And we have those prosecutions in place right now. Last month we seized 19 pounds in a small community on Highway 99 just outside of Stockton. That 19 pounds equates to almost a million doses of fentanyl. That would be enough to kill every man, woman, and child in San Joaquin County. – Every time I investigated these cases, I looked at those kids and thought of mine. I felt that there had to be something done to help the parents at least get some closure for what was happening. It’s my purpose is identify the people that I can and charge them and get them to the DA’s office as fast as I can. – We’re being aggressive on this so that we’re working with our partners. This is absolutely huge, getting this message out. This just isn’t my fight. This isn’t just law enforcement’s fight. This is all of our fight ’cause our goal is that there would be no more fentanyl deaths in San Joaquin County. – My mission is to spread the awareness, to educate the public. We can help save a life. – Have the hard conversations straight to their face, let them get mad. Fighting with a teenager is better than not being able to fight with your teenager and don’t let anyone silence you. – I felt so lucky to have a daughter, you know? And now I don’t. And it’s been four years and I still can’t believe it. The consequences of your actions don’t just affect you. It affects so many more people that love you and care about you. It only takes one time. And that is what happened to Sophia. She was not a regular drug user. She was not a drug addict. She really did die from a one time use of a pill. – This is my son, Gabriel, forever 31. – This is my son, Kyler, forever 33. – This is my son, Jacob, who’s forever 28. – This is my daughter Emily, forever 34. – Christopher was full of life and passion, but Fentanyl stole his life. – Sophia was fun and smart, but she’ll never be with us again and she won’t brighten our days anymore. – We love her forever. – Major, as your mom, I’m so sorry you didn’t get to see past 17. You are a great kid. And although I wanted you to take senior portraits and go to prom and you didn’t get that chance, it’s okay. It’s okay. Mom loves you. (upbeat music)
Told through the voices of grieving parents, this documentary follows the real and lasting impact of the fentanyl crisis. Capturing the aftermath of sudden loss, the search for answers, and the transformation of grief into public advocacy. Paid Partnership with: San Joaquin District Attorney’s Office.
Told through the voices of grieving parents, this documentary follows the real and lasting impact of the fentanyl crisis. Capturing the aftermath of sudden loss, the search for answers, and the transformation of grief into public advocacy. Paid Partnership with: San Joaquin District Attorney’s Office.