Covina police find woman running in street and dead toddler inside a home

Homicide detectives were investigating the death of a toddler after officers discovered his body in a Covina townhouse early Friday, authorities said.

At about 3:25 a.m., a Covina police officer saw a partially clothed woman, with what looked like blood on her body, running in the middle of the 300 block of North 2nd Avenue, Sgt. David Rodriguez said.

The woman, who police think is in her early 30s, wouldn’t say who she was or where she lived, but she made statements to police that led them to think someone had been harmed.

The woman tried to flee, but police detained her, Rodriguez said. She was not injured and was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.

Officers learned she lived in the 100 block of East Italia Street, where they discovered a small fire in the second story of a townhouse.

“They saw the fire from outside, so they rushed in to save anybody they could,” Rodriguez said. “They found the toddler deceased on the second floor.”

Police did not release the child’s age, and Rodriguez said a coroner had not determined the cause of death. Officers don’t know whether the blood on the woman’s body came from the child, he said.

Investigators don’t think anyone else was involved, although the investigation is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call Covina detectives at (626) 3845622.