Toddler found unresponsive in empty bathtub in West Philly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Police Department is investigating a suspicious death of a 3-year-old who was found unresponsive Friday morning, covered in bruises and in a bathtub without water inside her babysitter's home in West Philly.
Police were called to the home on the 400 block of North 50th Street around 2:30 a.m.
Officers found a 3-year-old girl unresponsive in a bathtub with no water.
Police say there were bruises on the child.
Philly Police are investigating the suspicious death of a 3-year-old in West Philadelphia.
— Matt Petrillo (@MattPetrillo) February 17, 2023
Officers found the child unresponsive in a bathtub with no water but police say there were bruises on the child https://t.co/f1SuFxrWSx @CBSPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/SGK4wJgVos
Police tell CBS News Philadelphia that the house is not the toddler's home. They add she was with her babysitter.
"It is heartbreaking," Mata Crawford, a neighbor, said. "It's very heartbreaking."
She woke up early Friday morning to police and other first responders pulling up outside her apartment building.
"At first I thought it was an apartment fire," Crawford said. "I was scared."
She later saw a small girl who, she says, wasn't breathing.
"As I'm leaving out the door," Crawford said, "I seen them rush the girl out of the apartment and rush her downstairs."
The Philadelphia Fire Department Medic Unit transported the child to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The child died at CHOP, less than an hour after police responded to the scene.
The cause of death is unclear at this point.
Neighbors were stunned to see police going in and out of the building in the middle of the night.
"I heard a lot of sirens and stuff last night while I was laying down and I'm like, 'what is going on?'" Ayana Reid of West Philadelphia said. "That's crazy. How you find a baby with bruises?"
The 22-year-old babysitter being questioned by police is expected to face endangering the welfare of other children charges, which police say are not connected to the death of the child
Police have also not said where the child's mother is.
At last check, no charges were filed in this case.