TRAGIC COVID TOT
Died after hosp ‘stall’ by caretaker
A 3-year-old girl was found to have COVID-19 following her death at a Queens hospital Thursday — and a friend’s father is under criminal investigation after he took three hours to get her medical care, even stopping at a bodega before getting her to the hospital, sources said.
Jaylynn Evans’ death — which came a day after she attended day care and a sleepover — led city children’s services workers to the family’s Brooklyn home in protective suits Friday and sparked concerns others may have been exposed. “This poor girl didn’t have a chance. Everyone failed her,” said one Bronx cop.
Jaylynn spent her last full day of life on Wednesday at the Jump Start Day Care in Brownsville, her distraught great-grandfather, Winston Ramsey, told The Post. She seemed perfectly healthy, Ramsey said, though sources said that by the next day she was coughing and having a hard time staying awake.
On Thursday afternoon, a friend of the child’s grandmother, Anthony Richardson, 59, came to visit and suggested bringing Evans and his own 5-year-old daughter to his home in The Bronx to play, Ramsey said.
“My little granddaughter says, ‘I want to go. Can I go, mommy?’ She asked to go with the guy, the guy take her to The Bronx,” he said.
Richardson at that point became the adult responsible for taking care of Jaylynn.
But as the two little girls sat on the couch Thursday afternoon, eating snacks and watching TV, Jaylynn passed out, police sources said Richardson told cops.
Richardson was spotted on surveillance video leaving the apartment with Jaylynn seemingly unconscious in his arms at around 2 p.m., sources say.
He then drove the limp child to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Glen Oaks, Queens, telling cops he believed it to be the best place to treat her.
The hospital was 30 minutes away — and Richardson allegedly stopped at a bodega on the way, law-enforcement sources said.
Jaylynn was unconscious when she reached finally the hospital at 5 p.m. and was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, police sources said. There was no obvious trauma to her body, sources said.
Richardson, who sources say is on parole for a 1993 gunpoint livery cab robbery, has given no explanation for the apparent delay.
Richardson also has a 1986 arrest for failing to exercise control of a minor after allegedly leaving two young children in a car with someone who was drunk, sources said.
Health officials are working with the hospital “to see if a further investigation is warranted, a city hospital system spokesman said.
“If you have a little girl and she pass out, you need to call the ambulance,” the tot’s heartbroken greatgranddad railed. “Why you have to drive all the way to Queens? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Police initially charged Richardson with endangering the welfare of a child. But on Friday night, a spokeswoman for the Bronx DA said the office was delaying prosecution pending further investigation. Family — and cops — are hoping an autopsy will show why she died and whether it was COVID-19related.