MORGANTON, N.C. — The father of a 3-year-old boy who died thinks more could have been done to save his child. Police say the child was killed by his own mother.
Alex Garcia spoke with Channel 9′s Dave Faherty on Wednesday. He said he asked authorities in Morganton for an Amber Alert after his girlfriend left their home with their 3-year old, Jason Garcia.
Less than 24 hours later, on Dec. 3, police in Bel Air, Maryland said Jason was beaten to death by his mother, Gloria Hughes.
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Garcia filed a complaint against Morganton Public Safety and an internal investigation is now underway. The police chief told Faherty that shortly after learning about Jason’s death in Maryland, Morganton Public Safety began looking into the department’s actions involving the family. That includes two separate 911 calls made from their apartment in Morganton in the days leading up to the boy’s death.
Alex Garcia showed Faherty a partially decorated Christmas tree Jason helped him with at their home in Morganton.
“I miss him,” Garcia said. “His presence, I still feel it here. All his toys -- I haven’t moved them.”
Garcia said two days before Jason’s death, he called Morganton Public Safety because Hughes took his cell phone and barricaded herself in a bedroom with Jason.
“She wasn’t opening the door. She wasn’t trying to give any visual contact with police,” Garcia said. “She was saying she was scared for her life and safety and wouldn’t come out.”
Garcia said seven officers responded to the apartment. He agreed with police to leave for work in hopes of deescalating the dispute with his girlfriend. According to police reports, there was no indication at that time the 3-year-old was in any kind of danger.
But when Garcia got home the next morning, he said Hughes and his son were gone, so he called 911 again.
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“When I called the dispatcher, I told her I was trying to issue an Amber Alert,” he told Faherty.
Police confirm that during the 911 call, Garcia did ask “are you going to issue an Amber Alert?” But the dispatcher told him he’d have to talk with an officer, and those notes were not passed on to police.
Morganton Public Safety said when the officer contacted Garcia by phone, he did not mention anything about an Amber Alert being needed. The department also said it does not appear the criteria for an alert would have been met based on what Garcia told them.
Garcia believes the department failed both him and his son.
“Something was wrong,” he said. “They weren’t even listening to me, like my cries. They weren’t hearing me.”
The police chief said they are reviewing all of the body camera video from officers responding to Garcia’s home. Garcia said the department has agreed to show him that video.
A state statute lays out what qualifies for an Amber Alert. It says if an abduction involves a parent, the child’s life must be suspected to be in danger of injury or death.
Investigators charged Gloria Hughes with first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. An off-duty officer in Maryland spotted her standing in the street, holding the lifeless toddler.
Police have not determined a motive.
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