On May 22, 2013, Pearl Fernandez called 911 to report her 8 year old son Gabriel, not breathing after having "fallen and hit his head on a dresser". Paramedics arrived at her apartment located at Palmdale, California to find Gabriel unconscious. He was rushed to Children's Hospital LA, but ultimately dying after being on life support for 2 days. Responders at the scene noted that every inch of his body was littered with bruises, blood and wounds; skull crushed in - a telling sign of abuse.

An autopsy, which took 2 days due to the extent of his injuries, revealed that he had suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs, a broken nose, many missing teeth; there were ligature marks on his ankles, as well as cigarette burns on his neck, feet and genitals. Cat litter was found in his stomach and other internal injuries were discovered. Yet, there were wounds that looked like they were healing despite the brutality of it, indicating that they have been inflicted since some weeks back.

Although over 60 complaints were filed against Pearl Fernandez and her boyfriend, Isauro (Tony) Aguirre, the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) as well as the LA County Child Protection Services (CPS) deemed all the reports unsubstantiated, and no further action was taken. This was in spite of further reports by Gabriel's teacher and relatives of bruises and external injuries.

On 26 April, 2013, a security guard at the local GAIN office, Arturo Martinez, noticed the extreme injuries on Gabriel when Pearl came to collect a paper. Concerned, he asked Marciela Corona, the clerk that spoke to Fernandez and worker dealing with domestic violence, if she was going to report a suspected case of child abuse. To his dismay, Corona insisted that her supervisor, Suzanne Harms, told her not to file a report as the office was closing in 15 minutes, and she did not want to pay Corona overtime.

Although the 4 social workers attached to his case has since been fired, Harms has not.

She continues to work as a Project Director at LA County, not taking responsibility for the impact of her actions. When she chose to prioritise profits over empathy, she failed the children she was supposed to be protecting. Your tax dollars pay her to do one job that she is seemingly shitty at, and that is why she must be fired.

She must be held responsible for the system that failed Gabriel. At the very least, she must hold some sort of accountability for her actions. Not to get away scot-free and a clean conscience.