EAST HARLEM — An infant boy died soon after he was found unconscious in a home day care center Thursday, police said.
Emergency responders found 4-month-old Ady Seck lying face down in a crib in day care operator Soda Sarr’s apartment on E. 117th St. and Park Ave. shortly after 5 p.m., said police.
They rushed the baby, who lived at E. 131st Street off Park Avenue, to Harlem Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
The investigation is still ongoing but there were no signs of foul play and there was no known cause of death as of Friday afternoon, police said.
The last news Mohamed Seck had of his son was earlier that day around 2 p.m. when the day care center called to say Ady had been given a bottle and put down for a nap, Seck said.
“The baby was fine, he wasn't sick,” Seck, 31, said.
But when Ady’s mother Ndeye Marieme Niang, 26, called Seck three hours later, she was “freaking out”, according to Seck. She told him the baby was being taken to the hospital.
“And that's when he didn't wake up," Seck said.
Seck and Niang had been taking Ady to Sarr's home day care center, which they found through the East Harlem nonprofit Union Settlement, for about one month, the father said.
Sarr’s registration to provide day care services in her home was suspended on Friday, according to Office of Children and Family Services records.
Sarr received two violations since she was first licensed in 2006 and one occurred just one week before Seck's death.
On Aug. 12, the day care center was cited for violating the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene code that mandates operators obtain “a written statement, from the parent of each infant in care, setting forth the breast milk, formula and feeding schedule instructions,” which “must be updated as changes are made.”
The Office of Children and Family Services did not immediately respond to a request for more information about Sarr's suspension and violations, and a young woman who answered the home day care center’s door declined to comment.
