This story was published with the support of the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
The District had seen warning signs prior to 2-year-old Gabriel Eason’s death. But after suffering months of abuse at home, in April 2020 Gabriel died from what medical examiners determined was significant head and abdominal trauma while under the care of his mother, Ta’Jeanna Eason, and her boyfriend Antonio Turner.
On October 9, 2019, a child care center called the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) abuse hotline to report that 2-year-old Gabriel had an unexplained injury, according to an affidavit provided to the D.C. Superior Court by the Metropolitan Police Department. MPD investigators visited the Northeast home Eason and Turner shared, but by March 2020 investigators had not found enough evidence to prove or disprove the allegation of abuse, according to the affidavit. They closed the case.