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ORLANDO, Fla – A waitress worried that a young boy might be abused secretly flashed notes at her to see if he needed help, according to reports.
When Flaviane Carvalho threw a note saying “Do you need help” to the boy, he nodded. It was then that Carvalho, a manager and a server at the restaurant Ms. Potato, called the Orlando Police Department, reports Orlando Sentinel.
Now police give Carvalho credit for saving the boy from abusive parents, according to USA Today.
“‘Abuse,’ I say lightly,” Detective Erin Lawler said Thursday, according to The Sentinel. “It was torture.
The boy’s 34-year-old stepfather Timothy Wilson II was arrested for child abuse and neglect the night the waitress called police, according to an arrest affidavit. The child’s mother, Kristen Swann, 31, who was also at the restaurant, was arrested a week later for child neglect.
Police say the incident happened at the restaurant on Jan. 1, clickorlando.com reports. The boy was at the restaurant with his stepfather, mother and little sister,
Carvalho said she noticed the boy had scratches and bruises and he was the only one who had not received a food order.
“When I looked at the boy, I saw a big scratch between his eyebrows,” Carvalho said in a video posted by OPD. “I started to observe them and I could (see) that he was super calm and sad.” She says she first threw a sign at him asking if he was okay, then another asking if he needed help.
The Sentinel reports that the boy was examined in a hospital and had bruises on his eyelids, earlobes and arms. He was also 20 pounds underweight.
Police told the Sentinel that the boy said his parents refused him food as punishment and would also make him exercise excessively. The boy said he was hanged upside down from a door while tied by his ankles and neck, and was beaten by objects and with closed fists. He was also reportedly handcuffed to a moving cart.
“This child was meant to be killed,” Police Chief Orlando Rolón told the Sentinel. “That’s how bad the injuries were. That’s how horrible the memory of the abuse the child shared with us was.
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