Here is an update on the child Josh helped out last week.
His name is Deagen!
As promised, I called the police department this morning and was able to get through to Officer Charlie Negret (I spelled his name wrong in my last email). Officer Negret was the first responder to my little guy yesterday. He said that shortly after the female officer left to take Deagen to DHS (which was right after I left the scene), his grandmother, in a panic, came hustling up the street looking for her grandson. The grandmother has full custody of Deagen. Finally, a positive sign that someone was looking for him! Officer Negret said she hurried up to him and was frantically asking if he could help her find her grandson. Coincidently, that’s why he was there! Officer Negret asked her to describe the child to him, just to be certain it was the same little guy. Thankfully, her description matched that of Deagen, who had just left a few minutes before in a squad car. Officer Negret informed the grandmother that her grandson was found safe, but was unsupervised, underdressed and alone. Upon asking the grandmother how Deagen ended up in that situation, the grandmother said that she was watching the little guy, as she normally does every day, and needed to run to the grocery store. She left her 20 year old granddaughter in charge of watching Deagen while she was at the store. The grandmother said she was only gone for 30 - 45 minutes and when she returned home, some three blocks away from where I found Deagen, she discovered the granddaughter was “passed out” on the couch and Deagen was no where to be found. When I asked Officer Negret what “passed out” meant, he said he couldn’t go into any deals, but said the granddaughter was not responsive at first when he arrived at the house. Officer Negret had accompanied the grandmother back to her house (again three blocks away! It breaks my heart to know that Deagen was meandering around for who knows how long over the course of three blocks!) to question the granddaughter. I guess it took the granddaughter a few minutes to become coherent. He said he couldn’t tell me much more because an investigation is pending, but he said he issued an on-the-spot incident report and recommended an investigation be opened. I then asked him if Deagen was able to go home and he told me that Deagen was still at DHS until they can determine that the grandmother is capable and the living conditions (I’m assuming he meant the granddaughter and why she was not coherent) were suitable for a toddler to be in.
Sigh….so that means my little guy is still waiting to go home. I pray to God that everything works out and he gets to go home soon. I can only imagine what all of this must be like for him. From being left pretty much unattended, to having strangers huddled all around him trying to help, to being whisked away in a police cruiser, to having to wait to go back to what he knows as home. I don’t mean to be such a downer about this story, as the happy ending is that Deagen’s family was found, but the overtone that his home life isn’t what it should be (in my opinion) is saddening. Instead of being upset (more like livid) at the granddaughter for being so irresponsible, I’m trying to stay positive and hope and pray that everything works out for Deagen to go home soon.
Deagen, I know you’re out there little guy; hang in there! Don’t be scared, you have an army of people praying for you!
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