Shelter Island fentanyl OD victim identified, ninth victim revived, cops say
Shelter Island police have identified one of six overdose victims who died earlier this month likely due to a batch of fentanyl-laced cocaine while police in Southold said a ninth person was revived after overdosing Monday morning.
Shelter Island police were called to a home about 10:15 p.m. on Friday where they found 40-year-old Swainson Brown unconscious and not breathing. Police said he died of an apparent fentanyl overdose.
Seven North Fork overdoses between Aug. 5 and Aug. 13 have resulted in five other deaths, according to a Town of Southold Police Department news release Saturday. Police have not released the other victims' names but said they include a 34-year-old Greenport woman, a 25-year-old Southold man, a 30-year-old Southold man, a 27-year-old Greenport man and a 32-year-old East Marion man.
A ninth person overdosed in the North Fork hamlet of Laurel about 2:30 a.m. Monday, but was revived with Naloxone and is recovering in a hospital, Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley said.
Several victims had worked at various restaurants in Greenport, according to Flatley.
Brown had been the executive chef at the Pridwin Hotel on Shelter Island since 2015.
Brown was born and raised in Jamaica, where he "totally fell in love with it [cooking]" as a young person, he told the Shelter Island Reporter newspaper in 2018.
Glenn Petry, whose family has owned the Pridwin since 1962, said Brown was instrumental in transforming the hotel and restaurant’s reputation from a sleepy spot known mainly for its views into a foodie destination. His inventive cuisine, which Petry said embraced unusual uses of smoke, drew a following on Shelter Island.
"He came to our hotel and really turned the restaurant around," Petry said. "He was just incredibly talented, a uniquely talented chef."
Brown had planned to return to the restaurant, which has been closed for renovations since 2020, when it reopened in 2022, Petry said.
Friends are raising money to assist his family with the funeral, according to a GoFundMe page. His family could not be reached Monday.
Shelter Island police are working with Southold Town police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office to investigate Brown's death and the others on the North Fork, said Shelter Island Town Police Chief James Read.
"Together we are using all of our collective resources to target and arrest those involved in the sale of fentanyl in our communities in an effort to prevent future death(s) and to bring some form of justice to the families who unnecessarily lost loved ones in these tragic events," Read said in an email.
Police are urging anyone who purchased illegal drugs on the North Fork within the past few weeks to throw out all remaining substances.
The nonprofit Community Action for Social Justice has been offering free Naloxone — commonly referred to as Narcan — across the North Fork and will host a training event at First and South restaurant in Greenport on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Meanwhile a "very active investigation" continues as authorities look into the source of the drugs, Flatley said.
"We’re keeping our minds open on the investigation that there could be more than one source or two sources," Flatley said.
With Cecilia Dowd
Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
