“He has spoken to us now; at the time he was taken into protective custody, he was very quiet.” This was the statement made by María Teresa Araiza Llaguno, head of the Office of the Attorney for Children, Girls, and Families (Pronnif), regarding the emotional well-being of three-year-old Benjamín. The boy had been abducted by his father, Chad, after the latter shot the child’s grandmother, mother, and aunt during a multiple homicide in the Antonio Cárdenas neighborhood.
The Pronnif director explained that the boy was taken into the agency’s care the moment Chad was arrested while attempting to cross into Texas via the Piedras Negras International Bridge.
Since then, the minor has been receiving specialized, comprehensive care due to the trauma of witnessing the massacre—in which his grandmother, aunt, and his grandmother’s partner were killed—and the fact that his mother remains hospitalized in serious condition.
The official noted that they have already contacted a support family to care for the boy; he is currently in Piedras Negras but will be transferred in the coming hours to Saltillo, where his maternal family resides.
