A man died and a woman was hospitalized after they were found collapsed Wednesday morning in the library at Fallon Middle School, Dublin police said.
Officers had gone to the school at 3601 Kohnen Way about 7 a.m. after it was reported that neither had returned home from their janitorial shift at the school on Tuesday.
Officers found their vehicle parked at the rear of the school and conducted a search of the campus, finding the 32-year-old man and 29-year-old woman in the library, both suffering from unknown medical issues, police said.
The pair were carried out to the school courtyard and the Alameda County Fire Department and ambulance crews were called to provide treatment, but the man was pronounced at the scene. The woman was hospitalized for treatment.
On entering the library, officers had noticed a chemical smell and called the county fire department's Hazardous Material Support Unit to determine if there was any danger.
"After an extensive search of the school, no hazardous chemicals or materials were located and the school was deemed safe for reentry," police said.
The names of the man and woman are not being released as the police investigation continues.
Local
Dublin police Capt. Nate Schmidt released a statement Thursday, saying in part: "As we continued our investigation, we did find some narcotics on scene. Preliminary tests of those narcotics was that it was positive for fentanyl so we’re looking at that as well. We won’t know for certain if the two individuals had ingested that narcotic or not until we get our toxicology report back."
Here is Schmidt's statement in its entirety:
"Two individuals were pretty much unconscious in the library and that kind of let us down the road of initial thinking that this was some type of chemical related incident. So that’s why we called Alameda County Fire and Alameda County Fire Hazmat team. They went in with all their specialized equipment to detect if there was any kind of lethal chemicals or any chemicals that would cause medical issues and after their extensive search, they found nothing.
"They did find some boxes in there and containers but they’re all sealed up. They were like science kit things for the actual students. … We still have toxicology reports that we will be waiting on from both the decedent and the female that is still recovering.
"As we continued our investigation, we did find some narcotics on scene. Preliminary tests of those narcotics was that it was positive for fentanyl so we’re looking at that as well. We won’t know for certain if the two individuals had ingested that narcotic or not until we get our toxicology report back."
