09-14-2011, 10:16 AM
another needless death in a hot van 
![[Image: fp_09142011.jpg]](http://multimedia.heraldinteractive.com/images/galleries/fp_09142011.jpg)
![[Image: gabriel_0.jpg]](http://images.universalhub.com/files/images/gabriel_0.jpg)
Gabriel Josh-Cazir Pierre was just 17 months old, but the happy “gentle giant” left a lasting impression on everyone he met.
Dorchester mom of two Tawana Leslie saw that lovable, smiling face Monday morning — just before Gabby, the beloved toddler, was driven off in a day-care van, never to come home again.
Outraged child advocates and lawmakers demanded answers yesterday about how a Dorchester tot was left to die inside a sweltering van and how long child-care providers waited before reporting the boy missing — the latest in a crisis of dangerously irresponsible day care that has forced the state to shut down 24 child-care centers in less than two years, the Herald has learned.
Little Gabriel Josh-Cazir Pierre was supposed to be dropped off Monday at a family day-care center on Trinity Terrace in Dorchester run by Yohanna Tejeda, according to Carmel Sullivan of the state Department of Early Education and Care, which is now investigating.
Instead, the 17-month-old died after being left, possibly for hours, inside a hot van that driver Luis M. Matos parked in front of Gloria Luna’s Family Day Care on Floyd Street. The district attorney’s office said it is awaiting autopsy results on 17-month old Gabriel before deciding whether to bring charges in the case. Friends and relatives said Matos, a leader in the city’s Dominican community, is “devastated” and remained hospitalized with chest pains.
link to rest of story
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/region...position=0
![[Image: article-2037630-0DE686CF00000578-394_468x543.jpg]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/15/article-2037630-0DE686CF00000578-394_468x543.jpg)
Gabriel Josh-Cazir Pierre was just 17 months old, but the happy “gentle giant” left a lasting impression on everyone he met.
Dorchester mom of two Tawana Leslie saw that lovable, smiling face Monday morning — just before Gabby, the beloved toddler, was driven off in a day-care van, never to come home again.
Outraged child advocates and lawmakers demanded answers yesterday about how a Dorchester tot was left to die inside a sweltering van and how long child-care providers waited before reporting the boy missing — the latest in a crisis of dangerously irresponsible day care that has forced the state to shut down 24 child-care centers in less than two years, the Herald has learned.
Little Gabriel Josh-Cazir Pierre was supposed to be dropped off Monday at a family day-care center on Trinity Terrace in Dorchester run by Yohanna Tejeda, according to Carmel Sullivan of the state Department of Early Education and Care, which is now investigating.
Instead, the 17-month-old died after being left, possibly for hours, inside a hot van that driver Luis M. Matos parked in front of Gloria Luna’s Family Day Care on Floyd Street. The district attorney’s office said it is awaiting autopsy results on 17-month old Gabriel before deciding whether to bring charges in the case. Friends and relatives said Matos, a leader in the city’s Dominican community, is “devastated” and remained hospitalized with chest pains.
link to rest of story
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/region...position=0