Angela Johnson described her neighbor as a loving mother, who was distraught when she discovered her young son not breathing at the family home in November.
Baltimore police this week announced the boy, Pernell Morris, just 20 months old, died of "malnourishment and neglect," and released few additional details on the investigation.
"She was so upset. She told me how she found her baby," Johnson said as she sat on her marble stoop in the shade of her home on E. Preston Street Wednesday.
The boy's family could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Police said the boy's death has been ruled a homicide and no arrests have been made. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner referred questions to police.
The city has counted 10 homicides of juveniles under the age of 18 this year, including two two-year-olds and a one-year-old.
A police spokesman confirmed the boy was found by a family member not breathing inside the home on Nov. 10. The child was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Several neighbors said the family moved out of the home in the 1200 block of N. Eden St. shortly after the boy's death.
A funeral announcement posted on the William C. Brown Community Funeral Home website has a picture of the young boy, wearing a teal and white striped polo and jeans shorts, and black and white tennis shoes. The picture appears to have been taken on a stoop in the neighborhood.
Johnson said didn't know her neighbor well, but said she had twins and two older children. "They lived there a year. They had one Christmas there."
Occasionally, Johnson said she would look after the children, and they would join her on her stoop.
"She took care of her kids," Johnson said, recalling how the mother was regularly taking them to doctor's appointments. "She was a good parent."
Pernell's family's home was across from where Angela Dawson, her husband and five of their children died after an arsonist with ties to the local drug trade set the home ablaze in 2002.
Johnson said she recalled a man living at Pernell's family's home, who she said was the children's father. Johnson said she remembers telling him to come for her to help if she ever needed help for looking after the children.
She said she last saw their mother after the boy's funeral, which she said she was unable to attend.
Johnson said the boy had a twin sister, who was a happy kid but that Pernell was often crying. "Even if I picked him up, he cried a lot," she recalled.
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