Johnson County
Died: August 29, 2021
‘We didn’t know.’ Now she warns of the danger of fentanyl.
Many people around the Kansas City area have heard Cooper Davis’ story.
His mother Libby, a nurse, has been inside schools and spoken at forums and on panels. So has his aunt, who lives in the Wichita area. Together, as of Sept. 1, they’ve told Cooper’s story — and warned of illicit fentanyl — to more than 15,000 people at 65 events.
“And I have probably 20 engagements on my calendar this fall,” Libby Davis said.
Cooper, who had just begun his junior year at Mill Valley High School, died in late August 2021 after he and three friends shared what they believed were two Percocet pills. One of the friends had hooked up with a dealer in Missouri through Snapchat. Once they got the pills, the four boys shared them.
The portion that killed Cooper was made with a deadly amount of fentanyl. His friends survived.
“We’d never heard of illicit fentanyl being produced in Mexico and making it into the United States,” Davis said. “And the irony is, my husband (who is a nurse anesthetist) gives fentanyl in the hospital every day. … We didn’t know.”
The month after Cooper died, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a Public Safety Alert about fentanyl. The alert detailed how lethal it is and about the “availability of fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills.”
Each time she talks about fentanyl, Davis shares details about her son, the boy who they’d joke had just two speeds — “it was either going or sleeping.”
“So he was our cliff jumper, rock climber, snowboarder,” Davis said. “Whatever he was doing, he could not catch enough air. We’d say there was no such thing as too high or too fast.
“Maybe I’m biased, but he honestly was a self-taught natural at anything he tried to do.”
Cooper also could be a risk taker, his mom said. When it came to food, he’d eat just about anything. When the family would vacation at an all-inclusive resort, “he would be the one saying every day that we had to try something we’ve never had before,” Davis said.
Before fentanyl ended his life at just 16, he became interested in restoring and working on cars.
“That’s kind of where his love was at the time,” Davis said. “He was definitely not even focused on his future in terms of, you know, what am I going to do for the rest of my life? He was more of the, what’s happening here and now.”
Last month, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe confirmed that Aaron Hansberry, 28, has been charged with distribution of a controlled substance causing death. According to an online county court database, Hansberry resided in Washington State earlier this year.
In 2021, the year Cooper died, court records show Hansberry lived in Kansas City.
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