Neighbor: Boy's Parents Kept Exterminator Out Of Rat, Roach Infested Apartment
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Were there warning signs?
More questions arose Monday, about the Bronx couple accused of leaving their young child in a rat and roach infested apartment.
The parents remain in jail as the investigation continues.
As CBS2's Marc Liverman reported, there was filth everywhere and maggots all over the floors in the home where a 5-year-old boy was found Friday morning. He was all alone with insects crawling all over his body.
A delivery man knocked to drop a package off at the Kingsbridge Ave apartment, and the child answered the door.
"I was shocked when the told me last night," Carlos Robles said.
Robles lives one floor above the family. He wasn't home when the child and the child's 12, 13, and 15-year-old siblings were placed in the custody of the New York City Administration for Children's Services.
Charlotte and Wilfred Lewis were arrested and charged with four counts of failure to exercise control of a minor. Wilfred was also charged with endangering a child.
Police said they found blood stains on some of the bathroom walls and other parts of the apartment. Robles said he never heard any screaming coming from the apartment, but noticed something else.
"The exterminator, he tried to come into their apartment but they wouldn't let him go," he said.
Robles said sometimes he saw the child covered in filth.
"Mostly around her or sometimes his clothes," he said.
Both the NYPD and the ACS are now investigating.
"We're working closely with the NYPD. I'm getting more information as the day goes on and we will investigate to the degree that it's in our court, but as of right now this is not a school related event," Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina said.
Farina said they were looking into possible signs of abuse.
"Right now we're investigating where the other students went to school, how many days they've been absent," she said. "We don't go into people's homes and what happened here is primarily in the home."
She said the city does have a system in place to keep track of children's welfare.
"After three days, there's a red flag and an attendance call made to the family, why are you absent? And in some cases, depending on the family history we will even send attendance officers to the home," she said.
Farina also encourages neighbors to speak up as soon as they notice something out of the ordinary.
Both parents' attorneys said for now, they aren't taking questions from the media.
