Arrest Made In Connection To Infant Found Dead In N. Miami Dumpster
NORTH MIAMI (CBSMiami) – North Miami Police were questioning a transport driver after a box with a deceased newborn was stolen from his vehicle and left at a gas station dumpster.
Jarren Hood was arrested Friday night and charged with obstruction of justice.
Hood, according to police, is the son of the owner of the Carey Royal Ram'n Mortuary.
A police spokesperson told CBS4's Carey Codd that detectives do not feel Hood was completely forthcoming about the box with the dead baby inside and how that box wound up in a dumpster.
Cameras caught Hood on the scene at the U-Gas service station in North Miami on Friday. Police say Hood arrived to tell investigators that a box had been stolen from his transport van.
Police say that Hood was possibly transporting the dead baby to a crematorium.
Hood, according to police, is the son of the owner of the Carey Royal Ram'n Mortuary.
It's unclear how the baby died but police don't suspect any foul play.
A source told CBS4 News that someone going through a dumpster at a U-Gas station at NW 119th Street at 17th Avenue found the baby's body in a box.
CLICK HERE to watch Carey Codd's report
A gas station employee said a customer found the child, possibly a newborn.
"He went back there to the garbage can to get a crate to sit down then he see the box and take the box with him and he open... it was somebody die in a box," said gas station employee Jose Rosario.
The CBS4 News source said the baby was about a week old.
Investigators brought that man back to the dumpster to try to figure out how the child got there in the first place and the gender. Initially police thought it was a boy but then said they were not sure.
"Something's come up and that has changed. We don't know the gender of the child. The child was covered with a blanket or covering," said Major Neal Cuevas of North Miami Police.
Another gas station employee got a glimpse. He believes the child is a boy
"A guy came in and say he saw a baby in a box. I went outside and there was a baby in a box. There was papers and stuff in the box. That's a about it," said the man who identified as Mike.
When asked what type of paper, Mike replied,"Like diapers that you put on the like to keep from peeing on the bed, that's it.
People in the area were shocked and disgusted to learn that a newborn was callously left with the trash, stuffed in a box.
Jail records show that Hood is being held on $1,000 bond. The specific charge he faces is resisting an officer without violence.
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