‘He took one pill, and it killed him:’ Friends, family & community walk in silence on Overdose Awareness Day

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Since 2021, 1,010 people have died from a drug overdose in El Paso County, according to state records.

From 2021 to 2024, the El Paso County Coroner says 412 people have died from a fentanyl overdose. Recently, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Rocky Mountain Field Division reported one in every six fentanyl pills seized in the U.S. to date this year have been from their office.

On Monday evening, a crowd walked from Acacia Park to the SuPEERior Connections building at the intersection of Nevada and E Rio Grande Street in silence for International Overdose Awareness Day.

"The whole walk was just for everybody to recognize the silence of the grief that the families are going through," Rachel Frey, the organizer of the walk, told KRDO13.

Many in the crowd were walking for one person in particular, 17-year-old Josiah Vigil, who died from a fentanyl overdose in 2024.

"He got caught up in the horrible thing that's happening in our city, and I hope there's an end to it. I hope that this just keeps at least one kid from experimenting with these ugly drugs that we have going on here in this town," said Josiah's grandmother, Betty Rodriguez.

"He took one pill, and it killed him," Rodriguez said. "Talk to your children."

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