An Alabama boy left to die inside a locked car where temperatures reached in excess of 140 degrees is being remembered as a bright child who was full of life and lost out on a promising future.
Ketorrius “KJ” Starkes Jr., a 3-year-old foster child, died July 22 while in the care of a DHR transport driver who had picked him for a scheduled weekly visit with his father.
KJ, said aunt Brittney Johnson, knew his ABC’s and his numbers and enjoyed playing and loving on his family.
In May, KJ was on a visit at Johnson’s home, where she had put out inflatable water toys and fed him pizza.
“He was telling me, ‘Auntie, I love this,’” Johnson said. “I made his day that day, and unfortunately that was the last day I saw my nephew.”
“It hurts,” Johnson said. “It hurts deeply because they failed him, and it makes me feel like we failed him as well.”
More than 100 people gathered across the street from the DHR building in Bessemer Friday to hold a candlelight vigil and balloon release in KJ’s memory.
There were prayers, songs, and chants for justice.
Johnson read a message for KJ: “We will reunite with you up there. You were taken from us and we never had a chance to say goodbye, but I know you are now safe up on high.”
“I am beyond broken,” Johnson said, “and will forever carry you in my heart.”
The vigil took place about 12 hours after the fired DHR transport driver, 54-year-old Kela Stanford, was arrested on a felony charge in connection with KJ’s death.
Stanford, a former transport driver who worked for The Covenant Services, is charged with leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle, which is a Class B felony.
Prior to the vigil, family attorney Courtney French and state Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Pleasant Grove, accompanied by Johnson, held a press conference to discuss KJ’s death and Standford’s arrest.
“While this (arrest) does bring a measure of accountability, it does not bring back the life of a precious child who was full of promise, joy and innocence,” Sellers said.
“I am deeply heartbroken and outrage,” Sellers said. “KJ’s life mattered. He deserved protection, he deserved care and he deserved a future.”
“The mother and father, the entire family, they’re devastated by their son’s death, and especially how he died – a very tragic and brutal death,” French said.
“The mother and father have not been able to even talk about this,” French said. “They haven’t slept since this happened. They haven’t eaten since this happened.”
Stanford on that Tuesday had picked KJ up from his daycare about 9:30 a.m. and taken him to a visit with his biological father at DHR in Bessemer.
When the visit ended about 11:30 a.m., Stanford was to return KJ to his daycare but said she got sidetracked and forgot he was in her car.
French said Stanford took KJ with her to pick up food, take that food to her family, and then go to a tobacco shop.
It was when she returned home after the errands, the attorney said, that she forgot KJ was in the car.
French on Friday said that after leaving the child in the vehicle for hours, Stanford got KJ out, took him into her home and poured cold water on him until police and paramedics arrived.
Stanford last week called KJ’s father to apologize.
A woman with KJ’s father at the time of the call told Stanford, “Baby you got us sick over here. We can’t breathe. You left a 3-year-old in the car. He couldn’t defend hisself. You supposed to look in the back seat when you knew there was a child there from the get-go,” she said.
“It’s nothing you can call to say to make him feel better,” she said
“I’m not trying to make him feel better. I’m not,” Stanford said.
“There’s nothing I can say to make him feel better. I’m so sorry. Sorry don’t even express how deeply sorry I am.”
“She rode around for over an hour, from 11:30 until after 12:30, with KJ in the backseat and drove back to her home where she said she forgot he was in the car,” French said.
“She had one job, and that was to pick KJ up from the daycare and take him back to where she picked him up.”
KJ’s death has outraged the community and lawmakers, who are calling for transparency and accountability from DHR. Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday said the child’s death was the result of “reprehensible and gross negligence.”
French said following KJ’s death, his office sent letter to DHR.
“We have yet to hear from DHR, to apologize to this family,” French said. “We have questions how this happened. We have questions about this company, Covenant Services.”
He said he’s received reports about other complaints about the contract company.
“Law enforcement said that when KJ died, and they went to this lady’s house, there was illegal tint on her car that was so dark that if you were standing next to the car, you couldn’t even see that KJ was in the backseat,” French said.
“How is that DHR hires a transport company to transport a baby around in a vehicle that has illegal tint?” he said.
“Even if somebody did walk past the car, they would never see that KJ was inside the car.”
“DHR and these workers are responsible for this child’s death,” French said. “He should be here today. This should have never happened and should never happen to another child.”
Sellers is calling for accountability, transparency and reform.
“What happened to him was preventable and that truth should haunt us until real change occurs,” Sellers said. “The arrest is a necessary step toward justice but it must not be the only step.”
“This tragedy has revealed glaring cracks in the system, cracks that cost a child his life and we must ask the hard questions – how did this happen on the watch of those entrusted with KJ’s care,” Sellers said.
“Where was the oversight? What protocols were broken? Or worse, never existed?”
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