Man arrested for killing 4-year-old boy found dead on Mountain Creek area street, Dallas police say – The Dallas Morning News

Updated 10:10 p.m. Revised to include more information on the Dallas Police Force.

A man has been arrested for the death of a 4-year-old boy whose body was found lying on a street in the Mountain Creek area on Saturday morning, Dallas police said.

The suspect’s name will not be released until he is taken to the Dallas County Jail, police said in a press release Saturday night.

“Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of the Dallas Police Department, this criminal was brought to justice, and it would not have been possible without the Dallas FBI Evidence Response Team and the help of the public, “the statement read.

The boy’s body was found with multiple injuries around 7 a.m. outside a house in the 7500 block of Saddleridge Drive, near West Wheatland Road and Mountain Creek Parkway. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Police spokesman Albert Martinez said the boy died violently and a “sharp weapon” appeared to have been used.

A Haz-mat team arrived around 2:30 p.m. to clean up a circle of dried blood where the boy’s body was found.

Martinez said the boy is believed to have lived in the area and the death likely occurred around 5 a.m.

“We are shocked, we are very angry with what happened to this little child,” Martinez said.

Officers roamed the area to obtain images or information that could aid in the investigation.

Antwainese Square, 39, said she was jogging the neighborhood around 6:40 a.m. when she saw a figure lying in the road. She thought it was a dog at first because she could only see hairs, she said, but as she got closer she could see the boy’s arms and legs sticking out.

“That’s when I noticed the baby had ants on the bottom of his feet, so I knew he was dead by then,” Square said. “It was heartbreaking because this baby couldn’t be more than 5 years old.”

Square said she was hysterical when she alerted authorities. She said blood covered the boy’s face and upper half of his body and that he had no shoes or shirt on.

“As a mother, it’s just – it breaks my heart,” she said. “It breaks my heart. And now I’m scared. Now I’m paranoid. Because I don’t know what’s happened, I don’t know what’s going on.

“I mean just knowing that someone is capable of killing a child, that alone is just unsettling,” she said. “So I pray that this baby will receive justice.”

Lila Gilbert, 18, lives just down the road from where the boy was found. She said she and her family woke up at 8 a.m. to ask the police if a 4-year-old was missing from their home.

She walked down the street and saw a blanket over a body in the middle of the road. She said that at one point the blanket fell off and she saw blood and what looked like bite marks on the boy’s face.

“It’s a lot to take,” Gilbert said. “It’s so shocking to me that this is a 4 year old, someone’s baby. It could have been my little cousin or my little brother or something like that. It’s just the fact that he’s gone now. It’s just terrifying.

Later that morning, Gilbert said, she saw a relative of the boy come out and look at the body before returning to their nearby homes.

Gilbert said the area is normally quiet and people are in shock over the murder.

“I just hope they find whoever did that and put them behind bars because it’s not fair to kill a little baby,” she said.

Mid-afternoon on Saturday, FBI agents – some wearing hazmat suits – were concentrating on the heavily wooded Big Cedar Wilderness trail, not far from where the body was found. Mounted policemen were also in the area.

The trail, which neighbors say is popular for biking and a website says is thick with mesquite trees and cacti, was taped off at the crime scene.

Christine Villarreal lives on a street far from where the body was found. She said the neighbors were shaken by the news of the boy’s death and all wondered how and why it happened.

“We are all shocked to find a little boy right there – right there like an animal in the middle of the road, ”she said.

Anyone with information about the case can call 911 or the Police Child Abuse Unit at 214-275-1300.

Editor-in-chief Catherine Marfin contributed to this report.