Police in Tuscaloosa Investigating Toddler's Suspicious Death

Police in Tuscaloosa are investigating after the death of an infant child at a local housing complex Friday.

Captain Marty Sellers, the co-commander of the multi-agency Tuscaloosa Violent Crime Unit, said his investigators are looking into the death of an 18-month-old child that was reported at Hay Court in West Tuscaloosa Friday morning.

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The VCU, which is made up of detectives from the Tuscaloosa Police Department, the Northport Police Department, the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office and the University of Alabama, investigates all violent crimes, unnatural deaths and sex crimes in Tuscaloosa County.

Sellers said the toddler's death was "suspicious," and that investigators have taken a suspect into custody.

No further details on this developing story were immediately available. Stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread for more information as it is released.

If the toddler's death is ultimately ruled a homicide, it will be the 22nd in Tuscaloosa County so far in 2021, matching the number the VCU investigated in 2020.

UPDATE, 3:55 P.M.: Sellers has alerted local media that the VCU intends to charge the suspect in this case with capital murder.

UPDATE, 7:30 P.M.: The toddler's mother's boyfriend, a 28-year-old Tuscaloosa man, has been charged with capital murder after an autopsy of the child reportedly showed signs of extensive abuse.