NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – New Orleans Police Department data shows a roughly five-hour gap between someone reporting a missing juvenile in New Orleans East on Thursday morning (Aug. 14) and the NOPD dispatching an officer.
That call came from the same block where 12-year-old Bryan Vasquez’s family lives.
An NOPD spokesperson would not say Tuesday how quickly the departfment responded to the family’s report. He said the department is reviewing all aspects of the response internally.
Vasquez’s family said the nonverbal, autistic 12-year-old climbed out through his bedroom window in the Michoud area early Thursday and has been missing since. Bryan’s 11-year-old sister Brianna Vasquez said nothing’s been the same without him.
“We might not know where he is, but we have to find him,” she said.
Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo, a family friend and spokesperson during the search, said it took the NOPD hours to respond to his mother’s emergency call. She said that was after they also made an in-person report at the NOPD’s Seventh District substation in New Orleans East.
According to the NOPD’s calls for service database, someone reported a missing child in the same block around 10 a.m. It shows NOPD didn’t dispatch an officer to that call until nearly 3 p.m., about five hours later.
Rosales-Fajardo on Tuesday called on authorities to issue an Amber Alert to reach more people about Bryan’s disappearance.
“We want to know why haven’t the local and state officials put out an Amber Alert for a missing 12-year-old child? Nonverbal, possibly without any clothing, that is in need of his medication?” she said.
Louisiana State Police said Amber Alerts are issued only when a child abduction has been confirmed and the child is considered to be in imminent danger. Authorities also must have enough information about the child, the abductor, or the abductor’s vehicle to believe a public alert would help locate them.
For cases that don’t meet those criteria, State Police can issue a “Level Two Endangered Missing Child Advisory,” which it did for Bryan last Friday.
A source told Fox 8 that Bryan was last caught on camera on Sevres Street near Toulon Street. That source said Bryan removed his adult diaper and was seen nude in the area.
That was Thursday morning. Before that, between 5 and 7 a.m., surveillance footage places Bryan walking through his neighborhood wearing a diaper.
“We need to find him,” Rosales-Fajardo said. “We need to be turning over every garbage can, every tire, everything out here in the city. We need to cut down every grass that’s overgrown. We need every light to be turned on. We need more, and we’re not going to stop.”
Volunteers have been pouring into New Orleans East to help with the search for Bryan. They say they’re not giving up hope.