21-Year-Old Man Found Guilty Of Selling Pill Containing Fentanyl That Killed 13-Year-Old Boy

A young Redding drug dealer faces up to 13 years in prison for selling a Fentanyl-laden pill that killed a 13-year-old boy. 21-year-old Ryan Andrew Harrison has entered a guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter and other charges. On August 8th of 2020 the boy was found unresponsive by his parents at their home on Veda Street. He could not be revived and was pronounced dead. Redding Police found evidence of a drug overdose and detectives took over. They found the boy had used his cell phone to visit a Snapchat account and order a single “Perc”, a reference to Percocet, a prescription pill containing Oxycodone. No trace of Percocet was found in the boy’s system, so it was determined that he had been sold a counterfeit pill containing Fentanyl. RPD Detectives got help from Federal Homeland Security to eventually arrive at Harrison, who was using his social media account to advertise and sell drugs to his customers, including many minors. A search warrant was served at Harrison’s home on Fairmont Drive, where detectives found over 900 pills containing Fentanyl, a variety of other drugs and more than $30,000. During a follow-up interview Harrison admitted to dealing pills that were blue with an “M30” stamp to look like Percocet but which actually contained Fentanyl. Sentencing is set for September 5th.