Investigation Under Way After Boy Is Locked In Closet At Community Center
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Workers at a Bronx community center were the focus of an investigation Wednesday, after they closed down the center for the night with a 7-year-old boy locked in a closet inside.
As CBS 2's Don Champion reported, the investigation was launched following the incident this past Friday, when Lapray Hunt was supposed to arrive home from after-care at the Bronx River Community Center around the corner from the building where he and his mother live.
His mother, Monique Hunt, made calls to the center and searched her building and neighborhood, before finally calling police.
Officers eventually got inside the locked and closed-down community center, where they made the shocking, but relieving, discovery that Lapray was fast asleep in a locked closet.
Hunt said her son cried himself to sleep after being pushed in the closet by a 12-year-old. Even more troubling, he likely had been in there up to five hours.
CBS 2 tried talking to center managers Tuesday about the blatant mix-up, but no one would comment.
But in a statement from the Department of Youth and Community Development, a representative said, "We are taking this matter very seriously and will be conducting a thorough investigation of the incident."
Lapray had been going to the after-care center for about two years, but will not be going back. He was so shaken up by what happened that on Tuesday night, his mother said she is going to be taking him to therapy.
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