Updated 3/24: The Metropolitan Police Department made arrests this week related to the string of fatal fentanyl overdoses in January. On Wednesday, MPD announced that its Violent Crime Suppression Division arrested two individuals, charging them for various narcotics distribution offenses. The investigation was led by MPD, as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Original: D.C. and federal officials are investigating a batch of fentanyl that led to 10 overdoses last Friday, three of them resulting in deaths.

The overdoses happened in the area surrounding Nationals Park, scrambling first responders and prompting police to warn residents and drug users of the potentially fatal batch of fentanyl. Speaking at a fire station in Southwest on Monday afternoon, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee identified two of the victims as Gloria Hamilton, 72, and Lawrence Lucas, 69. The third person has not been publicly identified.

D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) referred to the deaths as a “mass casualty event,” and Jarod Forget, the special agent in charge of the Washington Division Office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, added that it was an “alarming number.” From April 2020 to April 2021, opioid overdose deaths nationwide spiked 30% to more than 100,000; the Washington region has seen a similar jump in fatalities, linked largely to the availability of increasingly dangerous batches of fentanyl.

Contee and Forget pledged to investigate the deaths and search out the source of the fentanyl, but Contee also urged people to obtain Narcan, a medication freely available across D.C. which is used to reverse overdoses. He also asked that anyone using drugs not hesitate to call 911 if someone starts suffering an overdose.

“That is not the time to to worry about whether or not someone is getting in trouble. It’s about saving a person’s life,” he said, adding that police officers have used Narcan 1,800 times since 2019 to reverse overdoses.

Last Friday’s overdoses came the same week that federal officials announced they had charged a local brother and sister for allegedly selling fentanyl that resulted in a woman’s death in D.C. in April. Larry Jerome Eastman, 21, of Temple Hills, Maryland, and his sister, Justice Michelle Eastman, 25, of Washington, D.C., face charges of unlawful distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, the first time such a case has been prosecuted in the city.

“We will be pursuing charges such as that in this case, as well as all cases where there’s a fatal drug overdose in our community,” said Forget. “One death is too many. Any deaths stemming from fentanyl is violent crime.”

D.C. runs a 24/7 helpline for people dealing with opioid addiction. It can be reached at 1-888-793-4357. This post has been updated to include the news that two suspects have been arrested. Amanda Michelle Gomez contributed reporting.