Mom ODs while taking kids for haircuts

July 28, 2017 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A woman being treated for an overdose Wednesday outside a West Side barbershop, where she took two children to get haircuts, told police she knew they were going to arrest her for child endangering.

“I don’t care. I don’t have custody of them anyway,” she told officers.

A police report states that officers were called to the 2616 Mahoning Ave. barbershop about 5:25 p.m. and found Amanda Long, 34, of Compass West in Austintown, passed out on a bench.

Long took two boys into the barbershop and went into the restroom, the report states. After she came out of the restroom, she fell down after tripping on a sign outside and was placed by a bystander on the bench, where she passed out.

When officers arrived, Long was barely breathing and had a shallow pulse.

Paramedics revived her with the opioid-overdose antidote Narcan, the report said. In her purse, officers found white powder, a crack pipe, 10 pills that were inside a lockbox and a dose of crack cocaine.

Long was refusing medical treatment for her overdose. Police told her she would either be taken to the hospital voluntarily or police would make her go for her own good. The report said that is when Long said she knew she would be arrested anyway.

She was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital with a police hold before she was placed in the Mahoning County jail. A misdemeanor charge of endangering children was filed against her in municipal court. She is expected to be arraigned there today.

She was not facing any charges for the drugs police said they found in her purse, but that could change today at her arraignment, authorities said.

A check of court records in Mahoning County and municipal court show that Long has no criminal record and no cases except for traffic violations and a civil case.

The boys were released to a grandparent.