Grieving parents demand answers after son’s fentanyl overdose at detention facility

The family of a teenager who died from an alleged fentanyl overdose in a detention center in Loudonville is speaking out for the first time.

13 Investigates first told you about the lawsuit when it was filed on July 7.

The grieving and angry parents of Caprist McBrown explain why they’re now taking legal action, claiming the teenager was not being checked on periodically and not protected by staff members at the Capital District Juvenile Secure Detention Facility.

Before Caprist’s death, his mom, Anisha, said he had a bright future in music.

“Music was like his life from like 2 years old,” she said.

Caprist was not only a gifted musician, he was brilliant. He graduated from high school early.

“He always had good grades,” said Anisha.

Her son planned on going to SUNY Delhi, she said. He was in the middle of deciding whether to study music production or computer science. However, Caprist never got to that point.

“He’s my only child. He was my everything. My everything,” Anisha said.

“Nobody knows how it feels to lose the best thing that ever happened to them,” Caprist’s dad, who is also named Caprist, said.

Life changed for the McBrown family when they decided to move away from New York City when Caprist was 13.

“He was introduced to the wrong crowd, and being that he’s an only child and lonely, he’s depressed probably from not being in the city,” Caprist said.

Their son got into trouble, which got him into the detention facility. Caprist was sent there after being charged for his alleged role in a shooting that killed a woman in Schenectady in 2020.

“He made a mistake in life. The mistake cost him his life because he was never allowed to make it right,” Caprist said.

The lawsuit said he died of an overdose in the facility last October. Fentanyl was found in his system. He was just 19 years old.

The family slams the organization in the lawsuit, the New York State’s Justice Center, and a “John Doe.”

Caprist’s parents believe “John Doe” is the person to blame for their son’s death.

The lawsuit said Caprist was not feeling well and asked to return to his room. John Doe walked him to his room. Caprist was found unresponsive a few hours later.

“I get a phone call. My wife was on the phone, hysterical, ‘CJ is not responsive.’ ‘What?’ ‘CJ’s not responsive.’ I just ran off the job and went straight to my wife,” Caprist said.

“That was the worst day,” Anisha said.

“This is torment that we have to live with for the rest of our lives now,” Anisha said.

Anisha and Caprist said they never got a call from the detention center about what happened. They first heard the news about their son from the police.

“The facility never called us to say, ‘Ms. McBrown, we’re sorry. Caprist is gone.'”

13 Investigates contacted the detention facility for comment, but we have yet to hear back. The New York State Justice Center has no comment on the pending litigation.