City Council President Ed Flynn is looking for the Boston Public Health Commission to conduct an investigation, after authorities found a 2-year-old boy spent an evening within the violent, drug-ridden Mass and Cass zone.
The toddler was seen inside a automobile parked in lots on Massachusetts Avenue final Thursday evening, together with his mom asleep behind the wheel, nevertheless it wasn’t till previous 8 a.m. the next morning {that a} road outreach employee alerted authorities a couple of girl with a “baby” on Southampton Street, a Boston Police report states.
Southampton and its surrounding areas, the report notes, “are known for the avid use of drugs, illegal drug sales, human trafficking and violence.”
“I think it’s a troubling development,” Flynn informed the Herald Monday. “I want to first acknowledge the professionalism of our first responders, but having a child in the Mass and Cass zone is horrific, and it’s certainly child endangerment.”
Flynn despatched an electronic mail to Dr. Bisola Ojikuto, government director of the Boston Public Health Commission, on Monday evening, requesting an investigation into the matter, to find out how lengthy and the way typically the kid has been there.
He additionally needs to know whether or not this was an remoted incident or if different kids have been discovered within the space, together with beneath the tents on Atkinson Street.
The BPHC deferred remark to the Department of Children and Families, which has taken custody of the kid, and to the report supplied by Boston Police. A spokesperson for DCF mentioned it has obtained a 51A baby abuse or neglect type for the incident, and “is investigating.”
According to the police report, the 34-year-old girl acknowledged she was on Southampton Street final Friday morning as a result of her automobile was towed from a McDonald’s parking zone, at 870 Mass. Ave., the evening earlier than.
The girl claimed to have spent a lot of the evening together with her son at Boston Medical Center, to remain heat and cost her cellphone. She mentioned she left the hospital at roughly 6:30 a.m., and headed towards Topeka Street to get “dosed” at a methadone clinic, the Boston Comprehensive Treatment Center, the report states.
Police had been knowledgeable by safety officers, nonetheless, that the lady was seen on Atkinson Street final Thursday evening, “pushing a stroller with a baby inside of it.” She was additionally seen on the close by Alltown gasoline station, “nodding off” by a gasoline tank the next morning, at 7:35 a.m., together with her baby current, the report states.
Officers had additionally been alerted to a girl who was apparently asleep behind the wheel of her automobile within the McDonald’s parking zone shortly after 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Her automobile was towed for an expired registration, the report states.
It wasn’t till previous 8 a.m. the next morning that the lady and toddler’s presence at Mass and Cass was known as into authorities by a road outreach employee, the report states.
Tania Del Rio, the town’s Mass and Cass coordinator, mentioned at a Monday Council listening to that the incident was known as in “as soon as staff laid eyes on the child.” He spent the evening there, she mentioned.
The girl was questioned by police and a fireplace lieutenant in entrance of the close by fireplace division headquarters on Southampton Street. She had beforehand been accompanied by a person “who was under the influence of an unknown substance,” Fire Lt. Gary Cullinane informed officers.
The man, recognized because the boy’s father, was not on scene when police arrived. Albert Giannini, 37, was later arrested on two energetic warrants, charging him with working below the affect of a managed substance and possession of a Class A drug, a class that features heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and LSD.
At the time of the interview, police and fireplace personnel famous how chilly it was. The toddler was sporting solely a single layer, regardless of the temperature being between 40 and 45 levels, the report states.
Due to the inconsistencies within the girl’s story, police couldn’t affirm if the kid had “spent the night in adequate shelter,” the report states.
“It is very disturbing to me that a child was exposed to the unsafe and unhealthy environment on Atkinson Street for an extended period of time before authorities knew and stepped in to remove them,” City Councilor Erin Murphy informed the Herald. “It highlights the public health and safety emergency that has been happening in the area for a very long time now.”
Flynn mentioned Atkinson Street was “festered with mice and rats” when he and Murphy walked via the world two weeks in the past to get to the Southampton Street shelter, and he was “troubled by the open-air drug market and drug use in public.”
There are “stabbings, shootings, drug dealings, rapes and sex trafficking happening all the time and it needs to come to an end,” Murphy added.
“We can no longer ignore it and we need to use all of our public health and first responder supports to stop another child from being down on Mass and Cass,” she mentioned.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”