Omari Jones-Pearce was a 1-year-old Black boy from Tuscaloosa who died on June 14, 2019, after being found unresponsive in a bathtub at Creekwood Village Apartments on 40th Avenue. First responders arrived about 7 a.m.; he was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

Initial accounts said Omari had been left with his mother’s boyfriend, who reported the child seemed lethargic, placed him in the bath, left the room, and then found him nearly underwater. Investigators quickly concluded the physical evidence did not fit an accidental drowning. Police arrested the boyfriend, identified in reports as Christopher Cornelius Pearson, then 27, on a murder charge that same day. Later court records cited an upgraded indictment for capital murder after authorities determined Omari suffered traumatic injuries consistent with being thrown into the air and dropped onto a bed; later reports say Pearson told investigators he had been tossing the child and then put him in the tub when the boy stopped moving.

Does anyone have information about Omari’s care or about what happened at Creekwood Village Apartments that morning?