Houston Police are talking to adults and children about an incident yesterday afternoon that led to three-year-old Raymond Pryer being left inside a Northwest Houston day care van without ventilation at Discovering Me Academy in the 8000 block of Antoine Drive.
For at least three hours, the toddler was left on the van with no air. The temperature inside was 113 degrees.
HPD Sergeant Lee Donovan said no one has been charged or detained at this point. The chaperone and bus driver were employees of the day care. Both were questioned.
“We talked with the district attorney’s office last night and we both agreed that the best course of action would be to do a slow and thorough investigation and make sure everything is done correctly and then ultimately get it to the grand jury to decide if there’s going to be any criminal aspect to this investigation,” said Donovan.
HPD Assistant Chief Bobby Dobbins said this is an active case and is too early to give details.
“We will leave no stone unturned and this will be a very detailed investigation that we’ll at some point present to the DA to go to the grand jury,” said Dobbins. “As we’ve stated before, we do a thorough investigation, we gather the facts and we get our case completed, and then we present it to the DA for charges. The DA helps us set those charges and what they believe those charges should be and then they’ll present it to the grand jury.”
Timeline:
10 am went on a field trip to Doss Park
2-2:30 arrived back at
6 pm arrived to pick up, couldn't locate child
6:30 pm found child on bus
6:45 first responders
6:56 HPD received URGENT call
7:02 HPD arrived, determined the boy had child heat exhaustion and taken to hospital
7:45 declared dead
It’s reported that the Department of Family and Protective Services found that the van did not have an electronic child safety alarm equipped in the vehicle as mandated by the minimum standards requirement, which prompts the driver to inspect the vehicle to determine whether children are on board before the driver exits the vehicle.
State inspection records show the day care center has a history of violations, with seven deficiencies -- two of those listed as high risk in 2015.
Houston Police are looking at video from the Discovering Me Academy daycare van.
Police now want any related video from the public. At least two dozen people were on the van.
The day care is closed today until further notice.
Houston police are waiting for the results of the little boy's autopsy.