Bel Air, Maryland – In the early hours of Sunday morning, the 400 block of North Main Street in Bel Air, Maryland, was the scene of a tragic crime. An off-duty Harford County Sheriff’s deputy came across a woman standing in the road, holding her lifeless child. The 37-year-old mother, Gloria Elena Hughes, had fled from her hometown of Morganton, North Carolina, with her three-year-old son, Jason Garcia, due to a child custody battle.
The boy’s father had alerted police in North Carolina that she may be headed to Maryland. Later that night, Hughes took Jason to the emergency room at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center after he ingested one of her medication suppositories. Surveillance cameras captured images of Hughes struggling with her son, slamming his head against the ground and body slamming him as well. Sadly, this incident marks the first murder case for Bel Air Police in almost a dozen years.
Bel Air Police Chief Charles Moore praised the work of law enforcement and other personnel in handling the situation. “We’re dealing with it. I give kudos to all of our partners that were involved. We have the sheriff’s office that assisted us, Harford County Child Advocacy, EMS personnel down to our dispatchers, our patrol officers who provided CPR. We’re working with them afterwards to deal with the grief and the stress that they’re going through,” said Moore.
The authorities are continuing the investigation into this tragic event. The community is left with questions as they grapple with the heartbreaking loss of a young life. The details of this disturbing case serve as a reminder of the importance of addressing mental health issues and the challenges faced by families in crisis, sparking a larger conversation about how to prevent such devastating incidents from occurring in the future.