Boy, 1, found dead in park playground as his dad is arrested
A one-year-old boy was discovered unresponsive at a park playground and his father has been arrested.
Deputies responded to reports of the child at Melville J Courson Park just before 9am on Wednesday, said the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station.
The toddler was rushed from the park in Palmdale, California, to Antelope Valley Medical Center and was pronounced dead there.
Neighbors said the boy was close to turning two years old.
‘My boyfriend woke me up this morning and told me that a little boy had passed out at the park and stopped breathing,’ a neighbor, Destiny Tibbs, told KTLA.
‘The police who came knocking at my door asked if we had cameras and if we saw anything but we told them no. He was really devastated and I am too because that’s really sad.’
Tibbs added that authorities told him the toddler did not have a known medical history and that something may have happened to him inside his home before he died.
The boy has since been identified by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner as Cameron Flores, who was just shy 20 months old, according to ABC7.
His father, Schaffer Grindstaff, 29, said his son had a medical emergency, sheriff’s deputies said. Grindstaff was then arrested for accessory to conceal a crime and child endangerment.
Cameron’s cause of death was not clear.
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services stated that ‘state law protects the confidentiality of records for all children and families who may have come to the attention of child protective services, and prohibits confirming or commenting on whether a child or family has been involved with the department’.
Cameron’s death remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the sheriff department’s homicide bureau.
The death comes about a month after a 10-year-old boy woke up to find that his father shot dead his three brothers and their mother at their home in Oklahoma City.
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