Boy, 4, Found Dead With 'Traumatic Injury'; Mother And Boyfriend Arrested

A woman and her boyfriend were arrested on murder charges after the body of her 4-year-old boy was found in Washington.

Seattle police officers arrived at a residence at West Olympic Place in Queen Anne neighborhood at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday after receiving a report of an unresponsive child. Upon reaching the scene, they found the 4-year-old boy unconscious, Seattle Times reported.

While Seattle Fire medics attempted life-saving measures on the boy, he was pronounced dead.

"SFD medics attempted life-saving measures, but the boy was declared deceased at the scene," the Seattle Police Department said in a statement.

The child's 23-year-old mother and her 20-year-old boyfriend were arrested after investigators said they found the child with evidence of "traumatic injury."

"Officers booked the man into King County Jail for murder. Officers transported the woman to Harborview Medical Center after she was declined at the jail for medical reasons," the police department continued. "She will also be booked into KCJ for murder when she is released from the hospital."

The cause of the young victim's death was not immediately released. An investigation was launched into the matter.

Residents in the neighborhood expressed sadness over the child's death.

"It's awful, I did hear sirens, ambulances probably and police," one resident, Sherrie Wood, told KOMO News. "It's tragic, you do hear stuff around here often there are a lot of drugs in this area, a lot."

"It's horrible, it makes you wonder, what happened and who was involved what was going on, nothing in the world that could make that justifiable," said another resident, Cassie.

"It's horrific and tragic and horrible, my partner works with a lot of those kinds of cases, we hear of that thing often, but it's different knowing it happened," Cassie added. "It's just horrible, no way around it."

Domestic violence cases in the area have seen an uptick in the last couple of years, said David Martin with the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Martin said the rise could be due to the increase in stress triggered by the pandemic and could also be the result of better data collection, King 5 reported.