Street co-naming ceremonies usually honor New Yorkers who led long, fruitful lives of service to their communities. But on Sept. 15, Bronx neighbors and elected officials gathered to unveil a street sign for Nicholas Feliz Dominici, who was just a toddler when he died Sept. 15, 2023, after being exposed to fentanyl at his Kingsbridge day care.
The intersection of Kingsbridge Road and Kingsbridge Terrace is now marked Nicholas Otoniel Feliz Dominici Way. His death, at the age of 1, along with injury of three other children, rocked the west Bronx community and drew nationwide attention to the lack of consistent regulation for home-based day cares. Authorities, following Nicholas’ death, discovered a stash of fentanyl along with drug paraphernalia beneath a trap door in the room where the children apparently slept.
The toddler’s parents, Otoniel Feliz and Zoila Dominici, along with their four other children, tearfully supported each other through the difficult day, which included an evening vigil mass at the family’s Catholic church.
The loss of Nicholas “tore us all apart” — the family and the community, said Feliz in Spanish. “It’s been hard for us to get up every day.” He also pleaded with neighbors to keep a watchful eye for suspicious behaviors.
Nicholas’ death showed the difficulty of knowing what’s really going on at home-based day cares. The now-closed business where Nicholas died, Divino Niño on Morris Avenue, was relatively new but properly licensed and found to have no problems on its first and only inspection before being shut down due to the fentanyl case.
The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) conducts inspections of home-based day cares, while licensure is granted and overseen by the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). But laws relating to day cares are inconsistent throughout the country — and even with city processes in place, other tragedies have occurred at day cares that were properly licensed and inspected.
Currently, there are 28 group family day cares in the Bronx facing license denial, revocation or suspension due to violations found during city inspections.
Since Nicholas’ death, officials at every level of government have introduced legislation and funding to bolster overall neighborhood safety, improve child care staff training and make parents more aware of their rights.
Sen. Gustavo Rivera sponsored a bill to develop substance and overdose prevention training for day care staff and improve transparency for parents. Assembly Member George Alvarez, who represents the Kingsbridge neighborhood, sponsored the Assembly version of the bill.
At the city level, Council Member Pierina Sanchez sponsored four bills aimed at improving the city’s day cares. The bills call for a report on training for the city’s day care inspectors; an outreach campaign to enroll more day care staff in drug overdose and reversal training; an outreach campaign to inform parents of their rights to visit their child’s day care; and a resolution calling on the state to pass Rivera’s state bill.
Nicholas’ death prompted the city to “interrogate the gaps that led us to this moment,” said Sanchez, who is pregnant with her second child. “We cannot go fast enough” in taking measures to prevent similar deaths from ever happening again, she said.
At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat has secured over $1 million for the West Bronx Gun Violence Reduction Partnership, which will address root causes of crime and improve engagement between the community and law enforcement. The funds are expected to be granted this coming spring.
Addressing public safety will improve the community where Nicholas would have grown up — and keep his spirit alive, said Espaillat.
“The best way to honor Nicholas’ memory is to fight this [crime] back until we make the change,” he said.
Such improvements cannot arrive soon enough for concerned neighbors such as Heather Guerino, who attended the ceremony and said she owns a nearby day care facility.
When Guerino first opened her business in 1993, there were only a few in the neighborhood — but in recent years, they’ve popped up everywhere, she told the Bronx Times.
Guerino believes many home-based day cares are unsanitary and disorganized. Many owners are “doing it for all the wrong reasons,” she said. “They’re just doing it to make a buck.”
She said the lack of scrutiny on home-based day cares remains a serious concern. “It’s unbelievable what they can get away with.”
Meanwhile, the court cases relating to Nicholas’ death continue. Two defendants, Felix Herrara Garcia and Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, both of the Bronx, recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.
Grei Mendez, who owned the licensed day care, has pleaded not guilty to murder and multiple drug charges and is scheduled to next appear in Bronx Criminal Court on October 1.
District Attorney Darcel Clark said the Feliz Dominici case has been one of the most devastating of her career and pledged to stand with the family in the years to come.
“Even when this court stuff is over, I’m still going to be here,” Clark said.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
