Family of NYC tot who died after inhaling fentanyl at day care hires attorney; siblings now afraid to go to school, dad says

The heartbroken dad of the 1-year-old boy who died after inhaling fentanyl at a Bronx day care center that served as a front for a drug mill has hired an attorney — and said Monday that his four other kids don’t want to go to school because they’re now scared they won’t make it home.

“They don’t want to die in school,” Otoniel Feliz, the dad of tragic tot Nicholas Feliz Dominici, told reporters while joined by his lawyer, Jeffrey Chartier, outside the family home in Kingsbridge.

“All my four kids don’t want to go to school because they don’t want the same as Nicholas [to happen to them],” he continued. “It’s really hard … we are all heartbroken.”

Feliz, a golf course maintenance worker in Westchester County, said his little son had only been going to Divino Nino Daycare nearby for a week before his death on Friday.

“The drugs … this is dangerous,” he said. “My boy died. But it can be yours.”

Two people – Grei Mendez De Ventura, 36, the daycare’s proprietor, and her cousin-in-law Caristo Acevedo Brito, 41 – were arrested Sunday and charged with murder for Dominici’s death. Cops are still hunting for Ventura’s husband, who lived with her next door to the center.

Otoniel Feliz, the dad of deceased 1-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici, said his four other kids are scared to go to school after their brother’s death.

G.N.Miller/NYPost

Otoniel Feliz embraces his wife after the death of their little son on Friday.

CBS NY

Fentanyl, the powerful opioid – which is at least 50 times stronger than heroin – was being cut up for sale at the day care center, allowing it to float into the air and get into the kids’ lungs, authorities said.

Three other children – two 2-year-old boys and an 8-month-old girl – remain hospitalized after they were similarly exposed, authorities said.

On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams said the three other children were saved using naloxone, the overdose-reversal drug commonly known by its brand name, Narcan.

The family during happier times, before little Nicholas inhaled fentanyl at his Bronx daycare center.

Otoniel Feliz/Instagram

“It’s a tragedy – and it’s a preventable tragedy, which is the worst,” Chartier, the Feliz family attorney, told The Post.

“The saddest thing is, you entrust your children’s welfare with people, and they violate that trust and cause the death of your child – there’s nothing worse,” he added.

Caristo Acevedo Brito, 41, during his perp walk. He’s been charged with murder, along with several other crimes.

TOMAS E. GASTON

Grei Mendez De Ventura, 36, the daycare’s proprietor, was stone-faced during her perp walk. She has also been charged with murder, among other things.

TOMAS E. GASTON

Mayor Adams said three other kids were saved with Narcan.

NYPD/Facebook

The family found the day care center through a local community center, their attorney said.

And Feliz said they filled out a lot of paperwork to make sure it was a good fit.

“Parents are supposed to take care of their kids, and when we trust them to do the same – things weren’t equal,” he said.

“These are things that aren’t supposed to happen.”