UPDATE @ 9 p.m.: A co-pastor with Sons of Light Ministries said he's glad the man who overdosed on heroin did so in a bathroom at the Dayton church on Sunday.
"This is a wake-up call for us. We're not heroic," Edward Crislip said in a 5-minute, 4-second video posted to Facebook early Monday evening.
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"All we did was call 9-1-1. I'm glad he was here and not out behind the church building, behind a car or somewhere where no one could find him."
Keith Parsons, the other co-pastor of the church on Nordale Avenue, said Crislip posted the video to explain what happened Sunday because he was there to see it.
Parsons said he was out of the city Sunday.
The church membership, he said, comprises mostly bikers. The ministry has been in operation about a year, he said, is directed to the homeless and is focused on the east end of Dayton.
Crislip said the man who overdosed, identified in a Dayton police incident report as John Morgan, had never been to the church before Sunday and entered the building at the end of the service. He came in through the front door.
"I'm thrilled to say he is doing well," Crislip said in the video, the roar of traffic at times drowning out his voice.
"This is a tough thing for the church. It is a tough thing for the community.... This thing [heroin] is attacking. It is a plague," he said.
Crislip said it was frightening for people and especially children to see the man on the bathroom floor, literally dying right in front of them. A medic crew administered Narcan and took Morgan to Miami Valley Hospital.
Crislip, wearing a black T-shirt bearing the words "Shoot your local heroin dealer" in white all-capital block letters, suggested that people pray for the drug dealers to change their ways.
"I sport this T-shirt with pride," he said (Note: The word "Shoot" has a red line through it). "We're not shooting anyone. We're praying for this community. We're trying our best to bring God to the masses."
INITIAL REPORT
DAYTON — City officers issued drug-related citations to a 24-year-old man after receiving reports he overdosed on heroin inside the Son of Light Church on Sunday, according to a Dayton police incident report.
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Dayton police were dispatched around 12:26 p.m. to 519 Nordale Avenue for a reported drug overdose.
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John Morgan, of Dayton, was on the church bathroom floor when officers arrived, according to the incident report.
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“An empty syringe was laying under his right arm,” wrote Dayton Police Officer Phillip Hubbard.
Officers administered 2 milligrams of Narcan which had no effect, according to police. Medical personnel arrived and administered an additional 5 milligrams of Narcan which had the desired effect.
Officers located a small bag of marijuana in Morgan’s pocket while searching for his identification card.
Police cited Morgan for drug possession and public intoxication.
Morgan was transported to Miami Valley Hospital.
“He admitted to doing one cap of heroin,” Hubbard wrote.
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