Five New Jersey Cheesecake Factory restaurant female workers overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine in a high-end Hackensack shopping mall parking lot on March 15 and one died three days later.  According to a co-worker, it’s as if the group was playing “Russian Roulette” with their lives.

The worker, who requested to remain anonymous, said there was a lot of drug use in the lower level parking lot, adding that it had become so depressing that he had found a different area to park his car.

Twenty-nine-year-old Michelle Edoo, a Bergenfield resident, died three days after she and four other female workers from the Cheesecake Factory ingested the drug. Luckily, the other four workers were revived and survived the incident.

The friends believed they were taking cocaine and were unaware it was laced with the dangerous opioid fentanyl. The high-end mall includes shops like Bloomingdale’s, Saks, and Bottega Veneta.        A frequent mall visitor alleged that the drug use on the garage’s lower level had spiraled out of control.

The anonymous Cheesecake Factory worker said the incident shook him up. He said doing drugs was like playing Russian Roulette because it was impossible to tell what was in half the substances. 

The colleague said there were many versions of what happened, adding that he had not seen the four survivors since the incident.

Aaron Kim, 30, rushed to help after hearing about the five women lying on the ground in the parking lot. He said that he found the group unresponsive and without a pulse and that he administered CPR to two victims while waiting for the first responders.

Kim praised an unidentified nurse practitioner who knew exactly what to do in such a situation.

The incident has highlighted the dangers of drug use and the need for increased awareness and preventative measures.