Lethbridge police are investigating the fourth homicide of the year, the death of a nine-month-old boy last April.
“I think any of us who are parents really get taken aback when we have to deal with the death of a child or an infant in this case,” Staff Sgt. Scott Woods with the Lethbridge Police Service said Friday morning.
“The community is very, very interested in it and alarmed by it. And we’re no different than anybody else out there so it affects us.”
Lethbridge Emergency Medical Services responded to a report of a baby in medical distress on April 28, 2016, along the 600 block of 17 Street North.
Upon arrival, paramedics located Austin Lucas Wright inside the home. Wright was not breathing and was in cardiac arrest. He was then transported to hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The Calgary Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy, which determined Wright’s death was a homicide.
“We initially didn’t get involved in this investigation. It came in as a medical call. It wasn’t until after, at the autopsy, we first learned of it,” Woods said.
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“We learned from the medical examiner that there was some things of concern there, but of course we had to wait until, at one point in time a pathologist will rule it a homicide, and we just recently learned that.”
Police said they would not release the cause of the infant’s death because of the ongoing investigation. Woods would not say whether police have any suspects in mind. He also would not say who was caring for the infant at the time.
“We don’t have any charges at this point. And as far as the investigation, the totality of it, I’m not going to discuss whether we have any persons of interest or suspects at this time,” Woods said.
“We just have to stay focused and we will stay focus and work very diligently on this investigation to try to get to the bottom as to what happened to this little guy.”
Woods said the investigation poses some added challenges for police because they were not called to the initial scene.
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