The mother of a 12-year-old boy who was attacked and killed by an alligator after slipping out of his New Orleans home has been charged with negligent homicide.
Hilda Vasquez, 34, was arrested Sunday — almost a month after her nonverbal son, Bryan Vazquez, went missing and nearly two weeks after his lifeless body was pulled from a lagoon close to the home they had moved into just weeks earlier, NOLA.com reported.
The mom — who was previously convicted of abusing her son when he was a toddler — was also charged with second-degree cruelty to juveniles. Both counts carry up to 10 years in prison.
Vasquez had left her son home alone with an 11-year-old sister the day he climbed out of a window, which was not secured despite the boy escaping at least twice before, an arrest warrant said as proof of the mom’s “failure to protect and check on Bryan.”
She “failed to take appropriate steps to secure her residence despite her knowledge of special needs and history of leaving the residence,” an officer wrote.
And while the boy’s family blamed his escapes on him being nonverbal and autistic, his disability was actually caused by a “traumatic brain injury” from his mom’s abuse when he was just 3 months old, the documents alleged..
“There has been a pattern of both negligence and abuse over Bryan’s 12 years,” Deputy Superintendent Nicholas Gernon told reporters at a press conference Sunday.
“We believe that we can prove that that pattern of negligence and abuse led to … undue pain and suffering on his part,” Gernon added.
Bryan had climbed out of a window around 5 a.m. on Aug. 14 and was last seen less than an hour later on security footage wandering outside in only an adult diaper, according to police and videos.
The boy’s remains were located by members of the United Cajun Navy — a volunteer search and rescue organization — on Aug. 26. Officials determined the boy drowned after suffering blunt force trauma during an alligator attack.
Vasquez was previously convicted of seriously abusing Bryan when he was 3 months old, Gernon said.
The boy suffered a skull fracture, broken legs and a collapsed lung and was left with a traumatic brain injury, Vasquez, WVUE reported. She claimed she did not know how the boy was injured, but was convicted for cruelty to a juvenile in 2013.
Authorities removed him from the home, but at some point the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services returned him to his mother, police said.
Police have launched an internal investigation into a five-hour delay in their initial response to the 911 call reporting him missing, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
Police have also requested the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries exterminate “nuisance alligators” from the lagoon and bring in hunters to control the population, Kirkpatrick said.
Vasquez will appear for a bond hearing next week, WVUE reported.
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