NORFOLK, Va. - Fentanyl continues to plague Hampton Roads, taking with it sons and daughters, mothers and fathers.
Veronica Brickhouse met with News 3's Ellen Ice to honor her late son, Leonard Gallashaw. He died of fentanyl poisoning on March 15, 2021.
“That was the beginning of a nightmare, a road we had to travel, and I held his hand when he came into the world, and I had to hold his hand when he left the world,” said Brickhouse.
Brickhouse said her son was looking for percocet for pain management; he was paralyzed from the waist down following a drive-by shooting.
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“They came to the house and sold him fake percs which were fentanyl and they killed him," said Brickhouse. “We did everything in our power to save him, I even had Narcan in the cabinet for him but we couldn’t save him."
Statistics from a study published in the Public Library of Science shows black men are more likely than white men to die due to fentanyl. Across the nation in 2020, there were 35.4 fatalities per 100,000 black men, compared to 25.6 fatalities for white men.
“You’re killing guys and girls and people’s families," said Brickhouse. "It’s not fair to the families; it’s not.”
Brickhouse wants justice, and for her son to be remembered.
“He wasn’t trying to die. It wasn’t his time to die, but you kill my son and I consider that murder. Especially if you know it was fentanyl. It was murder to me,” said Brickhouse.
