DALLAS — On Sept. 18, 2023, Richard Harrison got a phone call, he says, no parent should ever have to receive. On the line was the Fort Worth Police Department, letting Harrison know his son was dead.
His son, Brandon, was 26 years old. He faced addiction, but Richard Harrison said he was turning his life around.
“He was just a good kid,” Richard Harrison said with tears in his eyes. “He didn’t deserve to go out like that.”
In September, Brandon purchased two blue pills from a dealer, thinking it was Percocet, a brand of oxycodone. “He took one pill. One pill was it. And he never woke up,” Richard Harrison said.
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, only two milligrams of fentanyl can kill. That’s comparable to a few grains of salt. The DEA said four out of ten fake pills contain a potentially dead dose.
The Fort Worth Police Department said there have been nearly 2,500 overdoses in Tarrant County in 2023. The majority of these overdoses are fentanyl. More than 100 people have died of overdoses this year.
Brandon’s death was one of the recent ones that Fort Worth Police have responded to. A man named Jacob Lindsay has been arrested for this case.
“Me and his mom will never get over it, but I do know that he’s proud of us,” Richard Harrison said as he spreads the word about the dangers of fentanyl. “I do know that he is not suffering anymore and he doesn’t have to deal with addiction anymore. And he’s set free.”
Richard Harrison wants to warn others about the dangers of fentanyl and the ongoing epidemic. “This pill will kill you.”