Credit: Yumi Kimura/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons
The Murray Hill apartment of a Mexican diplomat is being treated as a crime scene as part of an NYPD investigation into the death of the diplomat’s four-month-old son, a law enforcement official said.
The diplomat, Eduardo Rocha Bracamontes, 36, and his wife, Gina Ximena, 26, brought the infant to New York University Hospital around 9 p.m. Tuesday night, police said. The boy was not breathing and was pronounced dead approximately half an hour later.
The official said NYU Hospital notified the Administration for Children’s Services but did not notify the NYPD. ACS told hospital officials they had no prior contact with the family, the official said.
Police were finally called after an investigator with the Medical Examiner’s office viewed the infant’s body about three hours later. The investigator had discovered abrasions and redness on the infant’s scalp, cuts on his left thumb and right toe, and bruises on his back and genitals.
The Medical Examiner has not yet determined the cause of the infant’s death.
The official said Bracamontes told police he works for the Mexican Consulate and therefore has diplomatic immunity. The NYPD confirmed that he does, in fact, work for the consulate, but said he is only considered a diplomat while performing his professional duties, which means he can be questioned, and even arrested if a felony warrant is issued.
Police from the 14th precinct have been called to the home twice in the last few months for verbal disputes that did not result in any arrests, the official said.
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