Peel Regional Police say a man has been charged with attempted murder after a five-year-old Brampton boy was found near train tracks with a life-threatening head injury.
Police said the child was last seen in his room around 2 a.m. Thursday in the area of McHardy Court and McMurchy Avenue just south of Queen Street West.
Authorities said the boy’s mother woke up to find her son missing with their front door open. The boy was reported missing at 6:06 a.m., police said.
“This morning she got up, the door was open and the child was gone,” Const. Danny Marttini said.
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Police said the child, who has not gone missing before, was found around 7 a.m. near train tracks not far from his home.
Peel Paramedics said the boy was transported to Brampton Civic Hospital with a life-threatening head injury.
In an update Thursday afternoon, officials said the child is in critical but stable condition. He was taken to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto to receive further care.
Twenty-eight-year-old Dyon Smart, who neighbours identified to Global News as the boyfriend of the child’s mother, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, failure to comply with recognizance and breach of a probation order. He appeared in a Brampton court Thursday afternoon for a bail hearing.
Police haven’t disclosed the exact nature of the boy’s injuries or the circumstances leading up to the boy’s discovery since the investigation is still ongoing.
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Global News learned on Thursday that Smart allegedly stabbed a man at the same residential complex in September and was out on bail. With respect to that incident, he was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and two counts of mischief.
Officers from the special victims unit are leading the investigation and police said the Children’s Aid Society is also involved.
Police said earlier they are looking for surveillance footage in the area to help figure out the child’s steps leading up to where he was found.
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“Here at the scene we have the investigators doing their very best,” Marttini said. “They’ve started canvassing. We want every possible video feed, any information that’s coming in from anyone that may have seen or heard anything.”
Authorities have since shut down the portion of the railway for the investigation.
“To my knowledge, there wasn’t a train that came through until we entered in, so hopefully if there is any evidence, we’ll get every piece of it,” Marttini said.
— With files from Catherine McDonald