Anthony Yates
A 12-year-old was attacked and fatally injured by an alligator near his home in New Orleans. Police have now arrested his mom in connection with his death.
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What happened: According to a report by ABC, 12-year-old Bryan Vasquez was reported missing on August 14. Authorities found his body in a nearby lagoon two weeks after he vanished.
- The outlet explains that the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office determined his cause of death was blunt trauma consistent with an alligator attack and drowning. However, police took his mother, Hilda Vasquez, into custody on September 7.
- ABC reveals footage from a press conference where Assistant Superintendent Hans Ganthier explained the charges. Authorities are charging Vasquez with “second-degree cruelty to a juvenile and negligent homicide.”
- Ganthier stressed that the investigation was still active. He also noted that they were not ready to release some information. Details are vague, but Ganthier explained that the mother exhibited a “pattern of behavior.”
- “This is not the first time that Bryan has been the victim of any sort of trauma and/or anything that we deem to be negligent,” Ganthier said. “So this is all a pattern, and this is all established in the warrant.”
The Victim’s Mom Had Previous Convictions
A pattern of abuse: During the press conference, Deputy Superintendent Nicholas Gernon revealed that Vasquez was convicted of abusing her son when he was three months old.
- Authorities removed Bryan from the home following the incident. They returned him to the house at a later date.
- Per ABC, Bryan was non-verbal and wore an adult diaper when he went missing. Members of the United Cajun Navy found his body on August 26 in the lagoon using drones with thermal technology. Police have reportedly seized phones from family members, although Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters it was not an unusual thing to do.
- Gernon also told WDSU News that this was not the first time Bryan had exited the house unattended. “It wasn’t just this one instance of him getting out,” Gernon explained. “We know of at least two other instances in the two weeks leading up to his disappearance where he got out. And there were not steps taken to make sure that didn’t happen again.”
Per ABC, the police department requested that wildlife officials destroy all alligators in the lagoon where authorities found Bryan’s body.
