A 19-hour-old infant was found dead at USC Cardinal Gardens Monday night, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
At around 6:50 p.m., a report of a child left alone in an apartment at 3131 McClintock Ave., the address of USC’s Cardinal Gardens Apartments, was posted in the Citizen app. Multiple screenshots of the report later circulated on the anonymous student social media platform Sidechat, though Annenberg Media was unable to locate the original report on the Citizen app on Tuesday morning.
According to police, officers discovered a deceased full-term infant at the scene. The incident was entered into LAPD records around 1:30 a.m. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office said the cause of death remains under investigation, with an autopsy scheduled for today.
No details about the specific location of the infant’s death, or why there was a 19-hour-old infant in student housing, have been shared by law enforcement.
Earlier that evening, around 5:56 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) responded to the same location for a 20-year-old female experiencing “respiratory distress.” The woman was transported to a local hospital, according to LAFD. At 7:13 p.m., police requested firefighters return to the scene after discovering an infant who was not breathing.
The USC Department of Public Safety (DPS) declined to comment on the incident, directing all questions to the LAPD.
A senior legal studies student who lives on 30th Street said McClintock Avenue was lined with roughly 15 law enforcement vehicles when she was walking home around 11 p.m. The student requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from those involved in the incident.
The witness said yellow caution tape blocked both sides of the entrance to Cardinal Gardens, while two officers stood outside redirecting students to other entrances of the complex. The student recalled seeing what appeared to be a white DPS vehicle with its windows down and hearing radio messages referencing an “infant” on the premises who was “presumed dead.” The witness said they later saw an officer carrying what appeared to be a “small figure” wrapped up from the scene.
“I did notice that this was a serious investigation upon seeing that,” the witness said, explaining that they initially assumed the scene involved a weapon- or drug-related investigation.
“I would have never imagined that there would be someone dead in our college dorms,” the student said. “That’s not something we suspect upon seeing law enforcement or caution tape.”
Camille Zhang, a resident of Cardinal Gardens, said residents had not received any official notification about the incident as of Tuesday afternoon, leading to confusion among students within the complex. She said that while she does not feel scared for her own safety after the incident, she remains curious about what happened.
“I feel like so many people were confused yesterday, and I only heard from my friends about what might have happened,” Zhang said. “But also they’ve heard various versions of the story, so they’re not exactly sure.”
Other students in the complex, including resident Lily Hodges, expressed feeling similarly left in the dark due to the lack of communications from the LAPD and DPS.
“I’m from Hawaii, so we don’t get a lot of this at all,” Hodges said. “So I was a little bit on edge when I saw all of the LAPD people here, and they weren’t really giving us a lot of information.”
Annenberg Media spoke with several resident assistants at Cardinal Gardens who also said they were not informed of the incident or the active police presence.
This is a developing story.