Police say officers forced entry after the child’s mother reported he was not breathing.
SEATTLE, Wash. — A frantic 911 call from a Seattle apartment has led to a manslaughter charge against a mother accused of causing her 11-month-old son’s fatal fentanyl intoxication after an alleged cover story fell apart.
The call came around 2 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2024, after Safarah Rotaya Red told dispatchers that her baby was not breathing. What started as a medical emergency became a criminal investigation when police, prosecutors and medical examiners later compared her account with surveillance footage, drug evidence and autopsy findings. Red, 33, has pleaded not guilty in King County Superior Court.
Dispatcher notes described Red as sounding high or intoxicated as she reported that a man had attacked her about three hours earlier at a south Seattle light rail station, according to court records. Red said the man forced a white substance into her mouth and that the substance “tasted like fentanyl.” She also said her infant might have been exposed. Dispatchers tried to give CPR instructions because the child was not breathing, but the arrest report said Red was too elevated to follow them. Instead, she repeatedly said, “I’m sorry,” according to the police account. The call continued as officers were sent to her apartment.
When officers arrived, police said, Red would not come to the door. Officers forced their way into the unit and found the baby dead and cold to the touch on a mattress on the floor. Red was inside crying uncontrollably and still apologizing to herself, according to the affidavit. Officers also reported boxes of used Narcan cartridges near the child’s body. Red later told investigators she had given the baby several doses of Narcan and placed him in the shower because she had seen that response on television. She said she called 911 after those efforts did not revive him.
Red’s explanation to police placed the first danger at the Othello light rail station. She said the man punched her, pushed her down, forced the white object into her mouth and stole her wallet. She told investigators she rushed home after the assault, made her son a bottle, laid him on a mattress and then passed out. When she woke up, she said, the boy was foaming at the mouth in the same position. That account gave police a route to check. Investigators reviewed video from transit locations and other cameras tied to the timeline Red gave them. They said the video did not show the attack she described.
Instead, police said, the recovered footage tracked a different path. Investigators said Red got off at Rainier Beach and boarded a bus rather than following the light rail route she had described. They found no sign of an assault on the train, bus or station footage reviewed. Apartment cameras then allegedly showed Red entering the building with the child in a stroller. Prosecutors said she appeared to be singing and talking to herself, then singing and dancing in the mailroom while pushing the stroller. The image became a major point in the court filings because prosecutors said it conflicted with her claim that she had just escaped an attack involving forced fentanyl exposure.
The 911 call also overlapped with another moment investigators cited. While Red was still on the phone with dispatchers and the child was still unresponsive in the apartment, prosecutors said apartment surveillance recorded her throwing two trash bags down a trash chute. The bags were never recovered. Their contents remain unknown. Prosecutors wrote that the act appeared important to Red at a time when her infant son needed emergency care. Defense filings have not conceded the prosecution’s interpretation, and Red is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. Still, the alleged disposal is expected to be part of the state’s timeline as the case proceeds.
The medical examiner’s findings turned the emergency call into a homicide-related investigation. The child’s cause of death was acute fentanyl intoxication, according to the court record. A pathologist also found norfentanyl in the child’s system. Prosecutors said that finding pointed to likely chronic exposure because norfentanyl appears when the body metabolizes fentanyl. Investigators also said they recovered drug paraphernalia and a cup containing fentanyl powder from Red’s apartment. Those details, prosecutors said, supported the allegation that the child was exposed in the home environment and not through a random public attack.
The court record also includes months of earlier concern about drug use around the child. The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families had contact with Red after the baby’s birth in November 2023, according to reports on a fatality review. Hospital staff had reported fentanyl and methadone in Red’s system, and a caseworker later warned her about fentanyl’s danger to children. Prosecutors said Red tested positive for fentanyl several times after the birth while denying use. The DCYF case closed in June 2024. In the criminal case, prosecutors cited that history to argue Red knew fentanyl could be deadly to her son.
Red’s attorney, Madeline Mashon, asked that she be released on electronic home detention, writing that Red had no criminal history and had not been accused of other crimes in the long period between the child’s death and the charge. Mashon also said Red was sober and had been a victim of domestic violence. Prosecutors argued for a $500,000 bail order, pointing to the child’s death, the alleged false statement and the prior warnings. A judge set bail at that amount after Red’s March 2026 arrest.
The next stage of the case will test the emergency call against video, lab and autopsy evidence in court. Red remains charged with manslaughter and has entered a not guilty plea. The child’s death, the alleged trash chute footage and the disputed light rail story remain at the center of the pending case.
Author note: Last updated April 29, 2026.