On September 28, 2021, Carlsbad police were sent to a home belonging to Kelly Smith after a report that a 12-year-old boy was unconscious in the backyard. What began as an emergency medical response almost immediately turned into something much larger. Officers had no clear idea who had been with the child, how long he had been down, or why several adults at the property seemed unable to give a simple account of what had happened. Within minutes, the house, the people inside it, and the history surrounding the boy would all become part of the investigation.
The child was Kelly's grandson, Brent Sullivan. Officers rushed around the side of the house as people shouted that the boy was in the backyard and that dogs needed to be moved out of the way. One officer radioed that he had a 12-year-old juvenile who was not breathing and was not conscious, while another immediately began CPR. "Come on, buddy," officers repeated as they worked on Brent and tried to get enough space for emergency medical personnel to reach him.
The first questions were basic and urgent. How old was he? What was his name? When had anyone last seen him responsive? The adults nearby struggled to answer in a way that gave officers a clear timeline, and one man said he had only just arrived home from work. Brent was cold to the touch, and the lack of response quickly made the mood around the backyard much more serious.
Before EMS left, officers were still trying to work out who had actually been present when Brent was found. One woman said she was from Albuquerque and was only visiting, while another man said he had just arrived. Police repeatedly asked whether anyone else had been inside the house or in the yard, because the water department witness had already described someone leaving through the side gate. The adults insisted they either did not know or had not seen another person, which made the description of the fleeing man even more important.
The uncertainty forced police to treat the property as more than a medical scene. One officer held the perimeter while others moved between the backyard, the front of the house, and the people gathered outside. They asked for IDs, phone numbers, addresses, and relationships to Kelly and Brent. The questions sometimes sounded repetitive, but the repetition mattered because officers were trying to determine who had actually been at the house before they arrived and who had only appeared after the emergency began.
At one point, an officer apologized for speaking sharply to one of the men. He explained that the victim was only 12 and that the possibility of fentanyl or another opioid had changed how urgently police needed answers. Family members had already mentioned Narcan, methamphetamine, and fentanyl, and those references suggested the household knew far more about Brent's drug exposure than the first frantic moments had revealed. The officers did not yet know whether the drugs had come from one person, several people, or from somewhere else entirely.
Police began securing the property while EMS prepared to transport Brent. An officer told another to make sure nobody left the house, because at that point they did not know whether they were dealing with an accidental medical emergency, an overdose, or something else entirely. A man standing near the property gave his name as Joseph, although the transcript records conflicting versions of his surname. He told police that he had just shown up and did not know what had happened before he arrived.
A visiting woman identified herself as Lovato and said Brent was Kelly's grandson. She explained that Kelly lived at the home and that several other people were also around the property. Officers were still trying to determine exactly who belonged there and who had only been visiting when EMS moved Brent toward the ambulance. One officer escorted the ambulance to the hospital while the others remained behind to secure the scene and start separating witnesses.
As Brent was being taken away, officers heard something that changed the direction of their questions. Family members began mentioning drug use. Someone told police that Brent had been using marijuana, and the conversation quickly moved to harder substances and the possibility that Narcan might be relevant. The idea that a 12-year-old could have been exposed to fentanyl immediately raised the stakes for everyone on scene.
A water department employee then approached police with a separate piece of information. She said she had seen a man leave the backyard shortly before officers arrived. According to her, he had walked through a gate wearing a gray shirt and gray shorts and carrying a black backpack, then continued toward the area of Pierce Street. Police broadcast the description and began trying to identify who the man was and why he had left during a medical emergency involving a child.
Back at the house, officers questioned Kelly Smith. Kelly said Brent had been stealing drugs and had been doing so for some time. When an officer asked what she believed he had taken, Kelly answered, "Fentanyl." She said he had taken drugs belonging to his mother the previous day, and her certainty immediately created more questions about how much the family had already known about Brent's access to dangerous substances.
Officers pressed Kelly about who else had been at the house. She said she had been letting some people stay there, but she could not clearly identify who might have walked out of the backyard with the backpack. Brent's father was dead, she said, and Brent's mother was nearby. When police asked whether Brent's mother had a boyfriend or anyone else who had been in the yard, Kelly again said she did not know.
One of the men at the property told officers that he had just pulled up and had not seen what happened. Police explained that a witness had described another man leaving before they arrived, and they were trying to determine whether anyone present knew him. The questioning became tense because officers were dealing with a critically ill child while receiving incomplete and sometimes contradictory answers from the adults around him. Every person who had been near the backyard was now potentially important to the timeline.
Police soon began searching the surrounding area for the man with the backpack. They located a man matching the general description and stopped him. He initially identified himself as Eric Lopez and said he had been visiting a woman he knew from the house. He told officers he had no identification with him but said he was willing to return and speak with detectives.
The man was cooperative at first. When asked about the backpack, he said his phone was inside it but claimed most of the other belongings belonged to other people. Officers asked whether he had weapons or anything dangerous in his possession. He responded that the worst thing they might learn about him was that he sometimes got high, saying he smoked marijuana and had taken pills before, but he denied using anything that day.