The arrest affidavit of the man charged with criminally negligent child abuse following the death of a 6-year-old family member on Sept. 30 indicates that police investigators believe alcohol played a factor. 

Joseph Camacho, 53, was arrested on Oct. 1, following the drowning death of the boy, on suspicion of child abuse and felony crime against an at-risk person. 

Police have confirmed that Camacho and the child are related, but did not specify the nature of that relationship.

Officers responded to a Sept. 30 call at 3:10 p.m. about a drowning at Memorial Park. The police arrest affidavit states that a woman who had been windsurfing on the park lake spotted the boy, “floating face down.” She pulled him from the water and provided CPR until first responders arrived. 

Camacho was seen to “become upset, stomped his feet, made a phone call, and then left,” the scene of the CPR by witnesses, according to the affidavit. 

A police investigator later interviewed Camacho at the hospital where the drowning victim was taken and later declared dead.

According to the affidavit, Camacho told the investigator that he had taken the child to McDonald’s for lunch and stopped by a liquor store before going to the park. He told the investigator the two had eaten lunch inside the truck together. But he had lost track of the child when he was using a portable toilet for 20-25 minutes. He said he was searching for the boy when he saw the ambulance. 

The investigating officer noted in the affidavit that Camacho appeared to have extremely bloodshot eyes during the interview, and said that he had drunk “one beer” in the hospital parking lot.

Camacho’s booking report for the El Paso County jail indicates that he did not have any outstanding warrants or previous jail bookings. 

Passersby found a boy unresponsive in a body of water at Memorial Park on Saturday afternoon and rendered aid until first responders arrived. The boy was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Christian Murdock, The Gazette