The stop was cautious but not immediately hostile. Officers told the man they were conducting an investigation and asked him to set the backpack down. He said he had no ID and volunteered the name Eric Lopez. When asked where he was coming from, he pointed back toward the same area police had just left, then said he had been visiting a friend. His answers were enough to justify bringing him back to the scene so detectives could compare his account with what the water department employee had seen.
The backpack became a point of tension because officers wanted to make sure there was no weapon or dangerous item inside before placing him in a patrol car. The man was willing to talk, but when an officer specifically asked for consent to search the bag, he said no. Police did not pretend that refusal was consent. Instead, they secured the bag and continued dealing with him while they determined whether a warrant, arrest, or some other lawful basis would later permit a search.
He also volunteered information about his own drug use. He said he smoked marijuana and had used pills on occasion, though he insisted he had not taken anything that day. That admission did not prove any connection to Brent's suspected overdose, but in the context of a house where family members were already talking about fentanyl, it ensured detectives would want a more complete account of why he had been there and why he left.
When he was later told that the child might have died, the man said he had panicked because he heard people crying and believed someone had passed away. He claimed he had seen Brent on the ground, called 911, then disconnected and left. Officers summarized his story to one another so they could compare it with dispatch records and the witness who had watched him walk away through the gate. The fact that he had fled did not make him the cause of the emergency, but it made him impossible to ignore.
When officers asked permission to search the backpack, he declined. Police respected that refusal and held the bag while they determined what authority they had to examine it. The man continued talking and eventually admitted that he had become frightened when people at the house started saying someone might have died. He said he had panicked and walked away.
That explanation interested investigators because it meant he had been close enough to know something was wrong before officers arrived. He also claimed that he had been the person who called 911 before leaving. Police tried to clarify exactly what he had seen, when he had left, and why he had disconnected and walked away rather than staying at the scene. According to an officer summarizing the conversation, the man said he saw the child on the ground, called 911, then left after everyone began crying and panicking.
While that man was being brought back, officers at the house began looking more closely at the backyard and shed. Family members had already told them that drugs might be involved, so officers documented areas where Brent had reportedly spent time. They found foil and what appeared to be fentanyl or a fentanyl-containing pill, along with other items that officers considered relevant to possible drug use. They photographed the front of the house, the route to the backyard, the shed, and the surrounding areas so the scene could later be reconstructed.
Officers were careful not to move more than necessary. They used gloves, photographed foil and other items, and talked through what had already been touched. One officer pointed out a needle cap, while another noted that a piece of foil appeared burned. The transcript does not establish the significance of every item, and the officers themselves sometimes said they were not yet sure what they were looking at. Their immediate goal was preservation, not to announce a final theory before the scene had been fully processed.
Michael Ortiz helped direct officers toward the area where he said a pill had been found. Police also documented the route from the front of the home to the backyard because several people had moved through the scene during the rescue. They were aware that emergency responders, family members, and dogs had all been in the area. Separating evidence connected to Brent from ordinary household disorder would require a careful search rather than assumptions made from body-camera footage alone.
The condition of the property was troubling for reasons beyond Brent. A baby was also present in the home, and officers became increasingly concerned about the environment in which the children had been living or staying. Police spoke about preserving anything that might be evidence while also making sure the younger child was cared for. What had begun as a rescue call was becoming an investigation into whether adults had knowingly allowed children to remain in a home where dangerous drugs were accessible.
Eventually, an officer sat down with Brent's mother, Alexis Smith. She was visibly distraught and initially said she did not know what had happened. When asked to explain the previous day, however, she described a pattern that made clear this was not the first time the family had been worried about Brent and drugs. According to Alexis, she had taken her daughters to school that morning and returned home to find signs that Brent had been smoking something.
Alexis said she tried to search him, but Brent ran from her. She chased him because, in her words, he kept getting away, and when she eventually found him she brought him to Kelly's house so her mother could watch him. Alexis said she then tried to search for whatever drugs or paraphernalia Brent might have hidden because, according to her, he had been doing this repeatedly and had places where he kept foil and other items.
The timeline was important. Alexis clarified that she had brought Brent to Kelly's house the previous morning and that he had remained there since then. She said she had been searching for hidden drugs when Kelly later contacted her and said Brent was missing from the house. Alexis explained that Brent sometimes waited for adults to fall asleep and then left, which was why the family initially believed he might simply have wandered off again.
When Alexis arrived at Kelly's house, she heard Michael Ortiz shouting. Michael told police that he had walked in and was told to look for Brent because nobody could find him. He went into the backyard and noticed a closed area near the shed. After pounding on the door and getting no response, he forced it open and found Brent on the ground.
Alexis's explanation was fragmented because she was crying and speaking through shock, but the sequence became clearer as the officer slowed her down. She said the problem had begun the day before, not that morning. After taking her girls to school, she returned and believed Brent had been using something. When she tried to search him, he ran, forcing her to chase him until she could get him back under adult supervision.
She said she brought him to Kelly because she wanted her mother to watch him while she continued searching for drugs and hiding places. Alexis described foil being found in different locations and said this was an ongoing pattern rather than a single discovery. Later, when Kelly messaged that Brent was no longer at the house, Alexis began searching again because he had a history of slipping away when adults were asleep or distracted.