HOUMA, La. — On what would have been Ezekiel Harry’s third birthday, his three siblings and father made a point to celebrate with cake and by singing ‘Happy Birthday.’
“That brought smiles to my face, to my heart, even when I didn’t want to smile. I did not want to smile but they had me smiling,” Ezekiel’s father Trey Harry said.
With those smiles, still come lots of tears for this father.
“I cry, I’d say, every 15 minutes a day,” Harry said.
Harry and the rest of his family still have questions about the day when two-year-old Ezekiel was found dead in Houma last month.
“I want to know the details of how it happened, and my children want to know if their mom did it. I want to know,” Harry said.
Ezekiel’s mom, Maya Jones, 28, and her boyfriend Jermaine Robinson, 37, were charged in connection with the boy’s death. Police said it was a result of blunt force trauma and that’s about all Harry knows.
“By me waiting to get answers behind our child, it’s making me think that she did it,” Harry said.
Ezekiel’s grandmother, Cynthia Harry said in his nearly three years on Earth, Ezekiel danced his way into the hearts of everyone.
“He just loved people. He didn’t even have to know you. He would come up to you,” Cynthia Harry said. “I miss him.”
As a grandmother, she said not knowing what happened makes reality tougher to deal with.
“I used to have him over here every weekend, every weekend knocking on my door [saying], “Maw-maw, maw-maw,’” Cynthia Harry said. “I can hear him now just running through here.”
Houma police confirmed reports of possible domestic violence at the home where Jones and Robinson lived. Neighbors told Eyewitness News they’ve called police, concerned about the welfare of the kids. Harry wondered whether authorities failed his son.
“I feel like he could have still been here if they would have did their job,” Harry said.
Grateful for the support from friends and even strangers, this family is holding on to faith, something Harry is teaching his other three kids about.
“They’re always looking at the sky and trying to see what they can see, pictures, of like his face or anything like that,” Harry said.
That’s because, in this family, Ezekiel will always be a part of it.
Eyewitness News reached out to District Attorney Joseph Waitz’s office multiple times Wednesday for an update on the case. Our calls were not returned.
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