Five people arrested for opioid overdose in Austin

Austin police have arrested five more people in connection with the overdose “outbreak” that swept the city last week, the law enforcement agency said in a news release. City officials previously said the back-to-back overdoses were the deadliest overdose outbreak in nearly a decade.

Gary Lewis, 50, Denise Horton, 47, Kanady Rimijo, 32, Marcellus Barron, 30, and Ronnie Mims, 45, were arrested and charged between April 30 and May 2, county records show . They were arrested for either possession or delivery of crack cocaine, which also tested positive for fentanyl, the release said.

Lewis, Barron and Mims are all currently in the Travis County Jail. Horton and Rimjo have been allies since their arrest. Johnny Lee Wright, 55, was arrested Monday and initially charged with suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, according to his arrest affidavit. However, he now faces two additional charges of possession of a controlled substance under one gram and theft by a person. County records show.

How did the overdose happen?

From April 29 to May 3, Austin-Travis County EMS responded to 79 overdose calls in Travis County, Capt. Christa Stedman said Friday. Austin-Travis County EMS typically responds to two to four opioid overdose calls per day, she said. Emergency calls came in around 1 a.m. Monday around Neches Street between East Sixth and East Eighth streets in downtown Austin, Stedman said at an initial news conference on April 29. The calls then traveled across the city north, south and east Austin and were not limited to any one geographic location, EMS Deputy Chief Steve White said Tuesday.