Infant girl dies at illegal day care which stayed open after repeated police raids & complaints about unattended children: Report

The 7-month-old was reportedly found dead at the unlicensed day care three days after military police shut it down

Authorities in Hawaii are investigating the death of a 7-month-old girl which reportedly occurred last weekend at an unlicensed day care.

A Honolulu Police Department spokesperson told Stars and Stripes that they’ve opened an “unintended-death” investigation into Sunday’s death of an infant, only identified as Abigail, who died at a residence located on the Aliamanu Military Reservation. With an autopsy pending, the spokesperson said there’s no evidence of foul play.

However, Katie Camario, who lived next to the alleged unlicensed day care, told the outlet she witnessed droves of children left unattended—recalling instances in which she saw a child’s head caught in playground equipment and a toddler sticking a butane lighter in their mouth.

Camario said she filed a complaint through the military’s Interactive Customer Evaluation. Military police shut down the illegal operation on February 21—three days before the infant was found dead, according to Stars and Stripes.

Prior to the complaint, Camario reportedly made numerous calls to Army housing authority and military police. Alarmingly, the day care reportedly remained opened despite the neighbor’s repeated calls, several police raids, and two official cease-and-desist notices.

According to neighbors, Abigail and an older sibling stayed at the day care overnight. KHNL reported that a babysitter found the unresponsive 7-month-old. A GoFundMe page states that the infant’s father was away on a drill at the time.

“Here’s the thing: You all constantly tell us—you all who are supposed to keep us safe—drill it into our heads that if you see something, say something. I did,” Camario said during Monday’s town hall meeting where she and other residents criticized officials for allegedly ignoring reports about the illegal day care.

“That mantra is only effective if you all take care of those offenses before it gets to this point where we have a dead baby.”

 

[Featured image: Abigail/GoFundMe]