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Earlier this week, Latisha Fisher, 35, was arrested and charged in her 1-year-old son’s death. According to The New York Daily News, Fisher is accused of smothering Gavriel Ortiz-Fisher in the bathroom of 5 Boro Burger located on 36th street in Manhattan.
According to law enforcement officials, a woman walked into the restaurant bathroom to find Fisher holding her hand over the boy’s mouth.
“I put my hand over his mouth to put him to sleep,” Fisher allegedly told the woman.
She eventually locked herself in the bathroom. Customers and employees at the burger joint became concerned after bathroom lines grew long. At some point, 5 Boro employees forced their way into the bathroom, where they found little Gavriel unconscious and foaming at the mouth. Staff members attempted to perform CPR on the infant, but Fisher swatted them away. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital where he died. According to police sources, Fisher later “blamed the devil” for her actions.
Gavriel’s heartbroken father Luis Ortiz, 33, admits that he knew Fisher suffered from mental health issues when they began dating three years ago, but he says that he never realized she was capable of something like this.
“She’s a good person and a happy person,” he told NYDN. “It’s not her fault that she’s sick.”
“You couldn’t separate them,” Ortiz continued. “They were always playing, and when they were playing he was a happy boy.”
Ortiz says that Fisher was on medication for schizophrenia, but her dosage was recently decreased, which is what he believes caused her to behave strangely over the past month.
“She wasn’t herself,” Ortiz said. “You’d talk to her and she was, like, in a daydream. You’d have to repeat yourself to her. I thought she was going through something, like she wanted to be alone. I didn’t see the signs.”
On the day of Gavriel’s murder, Ortiz says that Fisher informed him that she would be taking the infant to the park to enjoy a day outdoors.
“She told me that she was going to take him to a park, let him run around a little while and then bring him back for a nap and wait for me to come home from work,” Ortiz said.
He adds that he has not seen or spoken to Fisher since Monday’s incident. While he realizes that Fisher is not to blame for her illness, he made it clear that he has not been able to forgive her for her actions.
“Forgiven her? Not just yet. I just want her to get help,” he said. “I don’t want her to be taken to jail because this is a serious thing. I want everyone to wake up and see that she needs help.”
Fisher has been charged with second-degree murder. The Ortiz family is asking for help with Gavriel’s funeral expenses. Anyone who wishes to donate can do so by heading over to Go Fund Me.
