Valdosta Police Department Press Release:
UPDATE:
“There is speculation in our community that the death of this 9 year old male was a homicide. As the police department has said in the past, we treat all deaths seriously but at this point, this is an active investigation. What that means is until we receive all facts to include a report from the medical examiner’s office, this case status is open. Law enforcement will decide what happened to this child, not individual who want to speculate and start rumors. And we will do so only by following facts and evidence”, stated Chief Brian Childress
On February 5, 2018 at approximately 1905 hours, Valdosta Police responded to a residence located in the 5000 block of Pasadena Way. When officers, Valdosta Fire Fighters, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Personnel arrived, they found a 9 year old African American male unresponsive in a bedroom in the home. The child was transported to the South Georgia Medical Center (SGMC) and later “life-flighted” to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, where the child was later pronounced deceased.
The step-father of the child advised officers on-scene he found his step-son passed out and unresponsive on the floor of the bedroom. Due to the age of the child, detectives from the police department along with crime scene technicians from the Valdosta/Lowndes Regional Crime Laboratory, responded to the scene. Since then, an initial autopsy of the child was conducted by a medical examiner in Florida with follow-up investigation scheduled by a medical examiner in Georgia.
Since the family is active-duty military, Valdosta Police Detectives are also working with investigators with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) assigned to Moody Air Force Base.
“We are treating this case as we treat all death-investigations by analyzing all evidence and interviewing all pertinent persons. The department is working with the medical examiner’s offices in Florida and Georgia, along with Moody OSI, the District Attorney’s Office, and the Georgia Department of Family and Child Services (DFCS)”, stated Chief Brian Childress.
