Michael Kinzer was 44 and worked as an electrician in Valley Stream on Long Island. He struggled for years with back pain and serious breathing problems, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and by fall 2016 was receiving powerful prescriptions from a local general practitioner, Dr. George Blatti.

Prosecutors say Blatti’s prescribing escalated in the weeks before Kinzer’s death on November 17, 2016. On October 21, Blatti wrote prescriptions for 90 morphine pills and 90 clonazepam pills. Kinzer overdosed and was hospitalized on October 29, developed pneumonia while admitted, and was seen again by Blatti on November 15, when he was prescribed 20 alprazolam pills and 15 oxycontin pills. Two days later Kinzer was dead; officials describe the medications as a dangerous mix for someone with breathing problems.

Investigators later tied Kinzer’s death to a broader probe of Blatti’s prescribing between 2016 and 2018; authorities allege thousands of pills were prescribed often without proper exams, including from a makeshift office and in meetings in parking lots. The case was prosecuted as criminal conduct connected to multiple fatal overdoses. Did anyone in Valley Stream or nearby remember Michael Kinzer or his struggles with pain and breathing problems?