{"id":14839,"date":"2012-05-31T16:26:18","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T20:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=14839"},"modified":"2012-05-31T16:29:01","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T20:29:01","slug":"toddler-dies-from-injuries-of-alleged-ongoing-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=14839","title":{"rendered":"Toddler Dies From Injuries Of Alleged Ongoing Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Messiah Love<\/strong> said earlier Wednesday, he was told his son had no brain activity. At 11:21 a. m., 2-year-old Christian Love<\/strong> was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was praying and hoping Christian<\/strong> would recover, but it didn\u2019t happen. Now, I\u2019m talking with doctors about harvesting his organs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messiah Love\u2019s grandmother, Ms. Georgette Williams<\/strong>, said she was with her grandson Tuesday night, but now the reality is setting in for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lifted his spirits by giving him options on what to do next. We also discussed having a funeral for Christian<\/strong>. We will try to arrange for a memorial service on June 9th.<\/p>\n

\u201cMessiah<\/strong> was reluctant about a burial, because he wants to keep Christian<\/strong> close to him. I suggested a private cremation, and he thought that was a great idea. That way, he will have the urn with Christian\u2019s<\/strong> ashes, and maybe that can be closure for him in part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messiah Love<\/strong> said when he picked up his son, from the child\u2019s mother\u2019s home two weeks ago, he quickly noticed the 2-year-old had bruises covering his body.<\/p>\n

\u201cI contacted the Department of Children and Families, and they told me to take him to a center for child abuse. I was told a doctor there would examine him.\u201d
\nLove said the doctor confirmed that Christian<\/strong> was bruised, and I needed to take him to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also confirmed he had been abused and that he had bruised ribs and a broken hand. I told the DCF worker I didn\u2019t want my son returned to the environment where he had been abused. But, the worker told me the mother had custodial rights, and I couldn\u2019t keep him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a fianc\u00e9 who is 6-months pregnant, and she\u2019s confined to a hospital because she\u2019s having problems,\u201d said Love<\/strong>. \u201cThey told her she will have to be confined to the hospital for the duration of her pregnancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Tampa Police, on Friday night, Candace Mitchell<\/strong>, 24, Christian\u2019s<\/strong> mother, took him to Florida Hospital. After he was examined by doctors, he was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital.<\/p>\n

Tampa Police spokesperson, Laura McElroy<\/strong>, said Mitchell<\/strong> has been charged with aggravated child abuse, because she waited 5 hours before seeking treatment for her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are conducting an active investigation to determine what happened to Christian<\/strong>. We were initially told the child was running in his home, and slip and fell. We were also told the child was in the care of the mother\u2019s boyfriend when the injury occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cI blame DCF for this,\u201d said Messiah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf they would have let me keep my son, this might not have happened. I tried to tell them what was going on, but they kept telling me Candace<\/strong> was the caregiver, so I had to give Christian<\/strong> back to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to police, the live-in boyfriend, Javaurian Safford<\/strong>, 27, has not been charged. \u201cI wish there was something I could have done to prevent this from happening,\u201d said Messiah Love<\/strong>. \u201cI never was comfortable having my son around her boyfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to arrest records, Safford<\/strong> was arrested September 23, 2008 on a charge of aggravated child abuse. He was sentenced to 10 years on December 13, 2010, but is currently serving felony probation on the charge. His probation period ends December 12, 2020.<\/p>\n

Mitchel<\/strong>l is in jail with her bond set at $50,000.<\/p>\n

Ms. Williams<\/strong>, said she\u2019s upset about the entire ordeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cCandace<\/strong> was already under investigation by DCF, because Messiah<\/strong> had contacted them a week before this happened. She should have never been allowed to get Christian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn aunt went to visit Christian<\/strong> a week ago, and she said he was sad, and she had never seen him like that before. She said when she and her husband tried to leave Christian<\/strong> grabbed them as if he wanted them to take him with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Williams<\/strong> said after Mitchell\u2019s<\/strong> arrest, she tried to get the judge to deny them rights to visit Christian<\/strong> at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an emergency hearing Sunday morning, and that\u2019s when DCF and the judge told us we could visit Christian<\/strong>. But, we weren\u2019t actually able to visit him in the hospital until Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMessiah<\/strong> is talking with an attorney to get advice on how to file a complaint against DCF.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police spokesperson, Janelle McGregor<\/strong>, said they are still actively investigating, and it will take a couple of weeks for them to complete their investigation and decide if the charges against Mitchell<\/strong> will be upgraded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Messiah Love said earlier Wednesday, he was told his son had no brain activity. At 11:21 a. m., 2-year-old Christian Love was pronounced dead. \u201cI was praying and hoping Christian would recover, but it didn\u2019t happen. Now, I\u2019m talking with doctors about harvesting his organs.\u201d Messiah Love\u2019s grandmother, Ms. Georgette Williams, said she was with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}