Then she noticed the bruises on her arms and face.
The waitress, Flavaine Carvalho, made a plan. She wrote “Do you need help?” on a piece of paper and held it up to the boy from where his parents could not see from his booth at Mrs. Batata’s restaurant.
She told police that it took three attempts before the boy signaled “yes”.
Carvalho called the police. Now she is being held responsible for helping to save the boy from what the police called a “dangerous abuse” situation.
“This could have been a homicide situation if she hadn’t intervened,” said Orlando police chief Orlando Rolon. ABC Affiliate WFTV.
The restaurant’s owner, Rafaela Cabede, said she credits the incident to a higher power.
She said Carvalho was not scheduled to work the night she saw the child. She was only there because another employee shouted. And the family was sitting at the only table in the restaurant where Carvalho would have managed to show the sign to the boy without the rest of the family seeing.
They were also the last table of the night, allowing Carvalho to pay more attention to the family.
“We understand that this should encourage other people to, when you see something, say something,” said Cabede. “We know that when we see a situation that is wrong, we know what is the right thing to do. We know that talking is the right thing to do. But it takes more than recognizing it. It takes courage.”
“The lesson here for all of us is to recognize when we see something that is not right to act on … it saved a child’s life,” said Rolon.
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The boy’s stepfather, Timothy Wilson II, 34, was arrested on a third-degree child abuse charge.
In interviews with detectives, they said the boy said his stepfather hit him with his fists, a wooden broom and a mop on the back. The boy told detectives that he was hung upside down on a door frame by his ankles and, in another case, tied to a wheelbarrow.
Police said the boy also said it was not allowed to eat regularly as a punishment. He was 20 pounds underweight.
“To be honest, what this child went through was torture,” said Detective Erin Lawler. “There was no justification for this in any kingdom in the world. I am a mother and seeing what that 11 year old girl had to go through, shocks her soul.”
After the police learned of the additional details of the abuse, they said they arrested Wilson again on several counts of aggravated child abuse and child neglect.
Police said that when she interviewed the child’s mother, Kristen Swann, she admitted knowing about the abuse and not seeking medical attention for the boy. She was arrested and charged with two counts of child negligence.
The investigators said that both the boy and a 4-year-old girl were removed from the couple’s custody by the Department of Children and Families. They said there was no evidence of physical abuse against the girl.
Police said the family had recently moved to the area and were staying at a long-term hotel.
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