Parents arrested in West Allis 4-year-old’s death investigation
By Mariana La Roche, James Stratton
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WEST ALLIS, Wis. (WISN) — A 4-year-old boy died after being found unresponsive in West Allis, leading to the arrest of two suspects.
According to the West Allis Police Department, the incident began when the West Allis emergency dispatch center received a call Saturday around 8 a.m., from a mother driving to the hospital with her unresponsive son.
Dispatchers told the woman to stop near a West Allis Fire Department station on 108th Street (Highway 100) and Greenfield Avenue, where they provided CPR instructions.
Fire department personnel arrived at the scene, rendered aid and transported the boy to Children’s Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Police arrived at the scene to initiate an investigation. Officers arrested the parents, a 21-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, both from West Allis.
The medical examiner identified the child as Dante Campbell.
According to search warrants obtained by 12 News, when the family woke up Saturday morning, the father told police the boy was “stiff” and “smelled bad.”
Records show he told police the child had fallen down the stairs Friday night, but court records indicate photographs showed bruises “on all sides of his body” that were inconsistent with a fall.
Before contacting emergency services, the parents dropped off Campbell’s twin at a friend’s house near 114th and Walker. A search warrant states the mother told the friend, “I need to go to the hospital my son is not breathing. I think he is dead!”
During interviews, the mother described the boy’s father as being “heavy handed” with disciplining the children, the search warrant states.
Police executed a search warrant on Cruz’s Chevrolet Malibu, 2004 model, where they discovered a gray child’s shirt with apparent bodily fluids.
The West Allis Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Bureau continues to investigate the case, which will be referred to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office for review and potential criminal charges.
Police are not seeking any additional suspects.
WISN 12 News spoke to Rosy Hudson, a family member who says she took care of the boy and other kids for years.
“He was my baby,” she said Monday.
She said she, another family members, are all devastated.
“I was planning for graduations, girlfriends, their college,” she said. “I wasn’t planning for any of this. He wasn’t even given a chance.”
Hudson created this GoFundMe for funeral arrangements and to help the other children in the family.
Hudson said she and other family members reported abuse of Campbell to the Wisconsin Child Protective Services several times in the last few months.
Monday, a CPS spokesperson tells WISN 12 News CPS can neither confirm nor deny any investigation, citing confidentiality laws.
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