Sacramento Police: Toddler's Death 'Unusual'

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento Police are investigating the death of a toddler under what they're calling "unusual circumstances", which neighbors believe wasn't an accident.

Neighbors CBS13 spoke to said there are lots of late nights at the home, so they figured it was more of the same on Monday, until an ambulance arrived and took the little girl away.

"I seen them pick up the baby off the kitchen floor," said Ebony Smart, a neighbor.

Smart says she saw the 2-year-old wasn't breathing by the time paramedics brought the toddler outside the home in the Meadowview neighborhood of Sacramento on Monday.

"I said 'What happened, what happened to her?' I was just shaking, I was like, 'What happened?'" she said.

It was a question that family members wouldn't answer on Tuesday, saying they aren't ready to talk.

Neighbors say the man who lives at the home changed his story several times about how the little girl died.

"He had told them she had slipped and fell, but he told us it was an asthma attack and then he said it was the stomach," Smart said.

Police interviewed family at Kaiser South where the toddler was taken by firefighters. Police aren't saying much, beyond saying they're trying to determine if the death was accidental or criminal.

"We're not calling it suspicious. It's just an unusual death with unusual circumstances," said officer Justin Brown.

While investigators won't elaborate on what "unusual" means, Smart believes she has an idea based on what she claims police told her that night.

"When the police asked me questions, they said there was probably meth involved," she said. "I just don't think that what happened to that baby was an accident. Whatever happened to her, I don't know, but I don't think it's an accident."

A department spokesman said he hopes to have an update on Wednesday.

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