3 arrested, including 2 minors, after ghost guns found in New York City day care

By Celina Tebor, CNN

(CNN) — Three people, including two minors, were arrested after multiple 3D-printed firearms were found inside a Manhattan day care, New York City officials said Wednesday.

The arrests come nearly two weeks after a 1-year-old boy died of suspected fentanyl exposure and two other children overdosed at a Bronx day care.

The Manhattan operation is a family day care site and inside someone’s home – similar to the day care in the Bronx, according to Christina Chang, executive deputy commissioner and chief program officer with the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.

Police executed three search warrants Tuesday at the day care as part of a “long-term investigation into the manufacture and sale of privately-made firearms,” Rebecca Weiner, the New York City Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism Bureau, told reporters.

Inside the East Harlem day care, law enforcement recovered several 3D-printed firearms, along with a 3D printer and 3D printing tools, Weiner said. The untraceable homemade weapons are known as “ghost guns.”

“This is a heartbreaking scenario of thinking that you’re dropping your child off to a place of save haven, just to find out that it was a dangerous environment where someone was making a gun inside,” Mayor Eric Adams said.

Police said Karon Jamal Coley, 18, was arrested for his involvement in printing the firearms. It’s unclear if Coley has an attorney.

He faces charges of illegal firearms possession, manufacturing of an assault weapon, and reckless endangerment, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Two minors were also arrested, but officials did not give their names or charges during Wednesday’s news conference.

Coley’s mother is the operator of the day care, Weiner said.

Investigators also found a “maltreated and neglected dog” at the day care, Weiner said.

The initial license for the day care was issued in February 2021, according to Chang. It was last inspected in February of 2023.

The day care had three violations related to documentation around feeding and sleeping schedules, preferences from families and verifications from doctors that children did not have infectious diseases, Chang said.

The day care “took corrective action,” Chang said.

On September 15, NYPD officers were called to a day care in the Bronx, where they found three unconscious children. First responders administered Narcan – a drug that reverses the effect of opioid overdose – to all three children, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the time.

Two children survived but the third – identified by authorities as 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici – died at a local hospital, NYPD officials said. Another child, a 2-year-old, was taken to a hospital after they were picked up by their parents. That child was also treated for exposure to the highly potent drug, police officials have said.

Investigators found fentanyl in an area where children napped at the day care center “laying underneath a mat where children had been sleeping earlier,” Kenny told reporters. They also found three kilogram press devices, two inside the hallway and another inside another room, authorities said.

Authorities discovered a trap floor containing drugs, including fentanyl, inside the day care, the New York Police Department announced last week.

The day care’s owner and her husband’s cousin are facing federal charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death. They also face state charges of murder, manslaughter, assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal possession of a controlled substance, court documents show.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.