Six officers hospitalized, one given Narcan after Warwick hazmat situation

By John Krinjak

Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com

Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6

WARWICK, R.I. (WLNE) — A Warwick police officer had to be revived with Narcan Thursday after coming into contact with some sort of strong substance.

Five other officers were also sent to the hospital.

This all happened when they were on a call at CCRI’s Warwick campus.

Police say an officer was initially exposed to that substance after going into the woods behind campus to check on a homeless person living in an encampment.

"We were reaching out to this person for the purpose of seeing if we could get him some recovery services," said Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen McCartney.

But things quickly took a turn for the worse, when the captain came into contact with some sort of substance.

The captain began to feel faint, called for backup, and was given Narcan.

The captain, an outreach officer who accompanied him, and four other responding officers were taken to Kent Hospital to be decontaminated. They’re all expected to be okay.

"This is a classic story of a good deed going fully punished," said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian.

Hazmat teams were on scene for most of the afternoon, working to decontaminate the scene–hundreds of feet away from CCRI classes, which remained in session.

"If you happen to see something like this, bring this to the attention of police and fire, let them check it out, don’t try to go in there and get to curious about it because you don’t know how it’s going to affect you," said McCartney.

We’re told no one from CCRI was exposed.

The substance will now be tested, though it’s suspected it’s some sort of opioid.

© WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017