The Tavares Police Department is still investigating the death of a 3-month-old boy.

  • Police investigating suspicious death of baby
  • Father said the baby had stopped breathing
  • An autopsy will be performed on the baby

The incident happened at the Inn on the Green Hotel on East Burleigh Boulevard on Friday night.

Investigators said the boy's father was inside the hotel room asleep when the baby stopped breathing. He told them that when he woke up, he found that the child wasn't breathing and ran to the front lobby for help.   

The family has been staying at the hotel for several months and live with a roommate, police said.

"I noticed his face was very pale. He was white," said Taylor Smith, who lives with the family. "Everybody was on the phone calling 911 yelling that they were not getting here fast enough. There was one lady on the ground who was giving him CPR."

The baby was rushed to the hospital, but died shortly thereafter.  

"It just happened, but I've been thinking about it a lot since it did," Smith said.

The child's mother was at work at the time, but Smith said her kids loved her.  

"She broke down, 'My baby...' I have never seen anybody that sad," Smith said.

Aubrey Denninson was staying at the Inn on the Green and said she saw the child's mother Friday evening. 

"She was crying, and the officers were holding her because she was on the ground, crying," Denninson said.

Police are calling the death suspicious.  

A Tavares police officer said no one has been arrested, but the father of the child is being questioned.

According to police reports, investigators interviewed several people in the lobby who told police that the father was abusive to the baby. 

An autopsy of the child will be performed. It could take six to eight weeks for the results to come back.