FULLERTON (KTLA) — A 14-year-old boy is in critical condition after he was shot in front of an elementary school in Fullerton, police said. The shooting happened just after 8 p.m. Saturday at Topaz Elementary School. The boy was standing with three or four friends when a car drove by, when a man approached then and began yelling gang slogans, police said.

HICKORY, N.C.— Police dogs detected the smell of human remains on two cars at the home of a missing 10-year-old girl who has bone cancer and a prosthetic leg, a search warrant said Monday. The document filed in a Hickory court didn’t indicate that police found any remains in their Sunday search. The warrant said the dogs detected the smell on a sedan and SUV belonging to the father and stepmother of Zahra Clare Baker. Earlier Monday, the police chief cast doubt on the couple’s accounts. They told police they discovered she was missing on Saturday and that one of them had seen her sleeping in her room hours earlier.

The scene has been redone and retold a little too many times: An abandoned child is found by a garbage heap, outside an orphanage, or at the roadside. This is extreme though; some parents just leave the child with a relative and never come back. They never visit and never send any financial assistance. When you try to trace them from their previous address, they are no longer there. But why on earth does a parent abandon an innocent vulnerable child? Why would a parent want to disappear without a trace? Why not formally put the child up for adoption?

(WESTBURY, N.Y.) — An eight-year-old boy is recovering after being stabbed in the back at a Long Island restaurant.
Police are investigating what caused Evan Sachs, 23, to stab the boy Friday night at a Dave & Buster’s restaurant and arcade in Nassau County, New York. “There was no connection whatsoever to this boy,” Detective Lt. Kevin Smith tells ABC News. “There was no contact between him and the boy, either prior or on this night. They don’t live anywhere significantly close to each other.”

Children in Western North Carolina may be in more dangerous situations than their counterparts in other parts of the state, according to a new report. WNC counties have higher rates of child abuse and neglect reports and have a higher rate of children in foster care, according to a report from the N.C. Center for Afterschool Programs.

The 16 westernmost counties all ranked 50th or lower in keeping down the number of children in foster care per 1,000 children. All but McDowell ranked 50th or lower for rates of child abuse and neglect reports. Only three other counties had higher rates of abuse and neglect reports than Haywood County. Only eight others had higher rates of children in foster care.

INGLEWOOD — A 21-year old man has been arrested in the death of a 2-year-old girl. Paramedics were called to the home in the 10600 block of Cimarron Street just after 11 p.m. on Wednesday. They found the child, Erica Johnson, in full cardiac arrest. She was taken to Centinela Hospital Medical Center where she was later pronounced dead.

SANTA ANA (KTLA) — A mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to 270 days in jail on Friday after pleading guilty to felony child abuse for tying up and starving her two young sons. Cheryl Ann Stuart, 26, and Mario Alberto Colin, 31 were arrested in June at a home Stuart rented in the 1400 block of North Parsons Place, according to Santa Ana police spokesman Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. Officers went to the home after her landlord called police to have them check on the boys’ welfare, Bertagna said.

SIMI VALLEY, CA (KTLA) — A softball coach at Simi Valley High School was arrested after a 15-year-old girl said the pair had engaged in a consensual sexual relationship two years ago. 40-year-old Michael Patrick Burgmeier was arrested in the 400 block of Los Angeles Avenue by Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies Friday on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child, officials said. According to authorities, the girl told another person she had sex with Burgmeier in September and October of 2008, and that person told her parents.

UPDATE: POST FALLS, Idaho – The Post Falls Police Department has confirmed the 3-year-old injured allegedly by a babysitter has died as a result of injuries. The child passed away at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Kevin Randall is working on getting you more information.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE: On Monday, October 4th, 2010 at approximately 4:30 P.M. Post Falls Officers responded to the 500 block of North Elm Road for a report of a 3 year-old male child who was breathing but unresponsive. When officers arrived on scene, they were told by the babysitter that she was attempting to remove urine soaked clothes from the 3 year-old when he became “limp” and unresponsive.

A father who subjected his two daughters to cruel sexual and physical abuse has been jailed for seven and a half years. A judge yesterday described the 56-year-old’s treatment of his children at their home in Leeds as “truly harrowing”. Leeds Crown Court heard he subjected his eldest daughter to systematic abuse from the age of 12 and his youngest from the age of 14. Their ordeals ended when they escaped their father when they reached 16. The abuse came to light when his youngest daughter, now in her 30s, contacted police.

Nicholas Ray McKee was found guilty Friday of first-degree child abuse resulting in death, but not guilty of second-degree murder, in the death of his 5-week-old daughter, Bella Appel-McKee. Washington County Circuit Judge Daniel P. Dwyer ruled that McKee “acted in a grossly negligent manner” that resulted in the infant’s death, but not with the “malice aforethought” necessary to convict him of second-degree murder. However, both charges carry the same maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma mother convicted of enabling child abuse will not get a new trial. Raye Dawn Smith was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the death of her daughter Kelsey Smith Briggs. Smith’s attorneys argued a juror in the 2007 trial broke the rules by researching the case on the internet. The judge ruled Friday there was no evidence the juror received any information from outside the courtroom, or shared anything with her fellow jurors.

A 24-year-old Sioux Falls man accused of putting his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in the hospital with
life-threatening injuries in March has pleaded guilty to child abuse. Thomas Ohrtman could face up to 20 years in prison because he has a criminal history. Doctors say the boy suffered skull fractures, internal injuries and bruises in the beating.

VISALIA — Powerful, heart-wrenching and at times, hard to watch — that is what The Lisa Project — a multi-media program that allows visitors to experience the life of abuse from a child’s perspective, is. “Everything you thought you knew about child abuse is about to change,” the self-guided audio tells people going through the exhibit. “I’m going to tell you of a world that is foreign to you, but very familiar to me,” the presentation begins as Lisa, the narrator, shares her story and the story of other abused children.

The unique mobile project, designed to raise the community’s awareness of child abuse, is presented by the Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council through the month of October. Through audio narration, and told through a child’s perspective, visitors are guided from room to room with scenarios depicting abuse. The PG-13 exhibit is not meant to shock visitors but is intended to educate the community about the very real threat to children, said marketing chair Patricia Pullen of Synchrony of Visalia, a nonprofit mental health agency that also provides parent education.