Arnold was loved by family and   blessed with many friends. Arnold was charismatic, humble, friendly, bubbly. He would bring happiness into any room he entered. He had a beautiful smile.

Arnold was diagnosed with ADHD/ADD since he was 7 years old, he was under medication for couple years to help him focus at school until he got to high school he decide not to take his pills as he said they were drugs that made him feel bad, I let Arnold choose not to take the pills as I did not want to force him to take what he said were drugs (his medication). Arnold struggled a lot in school due to his inability to focus.

Arnold liked Rodeo bull riding and his dream was to ride a bull one day, Arnold dreamed of buying a ranch to have many farm animals. I remember one day he came home with a roster; he said it was his pet. I had to give his pet in adoption because our neighbors were not very happy with a roster singing every day at sunrise.

Arnold started working at a local CVS pharmacy when he was 16, he was very excited about his new job and hopefully became a pharmacist.

Arnold also started his own car window tinting business. He was entrepreneur.

Because his birthday was close to Halloween, I use to organize every year Halloween theme party with customs and decorations, for his 16th and 17th birthday due to covid, it was too risky to organize a party as covid persist.

On October 31, 2020, Arnold asked for permission to go to a Halloween party, I felt guilty for not celebrating his birthday and gave him permission to go to the party, he was very excited to go and dress in his costume. I was not aware that he went to this party with fake friends and the party was not a family party, it was an illegal party at an abandon house.

Arnold never came back home; I made several calls to my son and no answer. At 3:30am I received a call from my sister telling me to go to her house as my son was not looking good, I felt something was not right. When I arrived at my sister’s house, I saw my son laying on the sidewalk of the street, paramedics doing CPR on him, I was not able to touch him or get close to him, I saw when they were putting a white sheet over my son, my son was pronounced death.

I was shocked, I did not know what happen, it was a nightmare, my son was a strong healthy boy. Speculations from the detective were that he was drinking, use of cocaine and nose at the party. I could not believe it was an overdose of a mix combination as the detective said it was the possible cause of his death.

My son did not use drugs before that night, I could not believe he was death due to an overdose. No further investigation to find out what really happen at the party he was that night as the detective believe was overdose.

Few months after I received the autopsy report for my son, “it was Fentanyl” found in his system, it was the first time I heard about fentanyl, I did not know what fentanyl was, I did had conversations with my son about   common drugs like cocaine, marijuana, edibles, meth, but never about fentanyl, I wish I was aware of fentanyl before, I wish I could have talked to my son about the dangers of fentanyl, but I learn about fentanyl in a hard way, losing my son.

My son had pure fentanyl in his system, enough fentanyl to kill 11 people.

No cocaine or nose was found on his system, like the detective assumptions were.

Pure Fentanyl kill my son!!! Not an overdose, he was poison!!!.

No open investigation for my son as it was ruled as “accidental”.  I still don’t know how he ingest Fentanyl, if he knew it was Fentanyl. He was murder by a drug dealer who gave this poison to my son, and he is free on the streets supplying more poison to others.

My son supposed to learn from his mistakes, not die from it.

Fentanyl change everything, my son did not get a second chance.

I lost my son Arnold 4 days after he turn 17, he earn his wings on November 1, 2020 and became forever 17, Arnold did not got the opportunity to graduate from High School, he will not get the opportunity to marry, he will not get the opportunity to have kids.