Portland police are investigating the Oct. 6 death of a 10-month-old boy found unresponsive at a Northeast Portland day care where another infant died last year.

State regulators immediately suspended all childcare at the facility, called the Broadway Children's Center, concluding that circumstances there present "a serious danger."

Police on Friday declined to disclose the circumstances leading to the boy's death. A medical examiner has yet to issue a cause of death, said Sgt. Chris Burley, a bureau spokesman. The state Office of Child Care mentioned sudden infant death syndrome in its suspension order but didn't clearly say that was the cause.

No one has been arrested or accused of wrongdoing. But state officials said Friday that they now plan to close Broadway Children's Center permanently.

Oregon has recorded eight deaths at licensed day cares since 2007, according to the Office of Child Care. With more than 4,000 facilities in the state, there have never been two deaths at the same location, the child care office said.

"This is unprecedented for us," said Lisa Morawski, a state childcare spokeswoman. "Two deaths in this span of time gives us serious concern about the safety of the facility."

Celeste Probasco-Artharee, who owns and directs the day care, declined to be interviewed but issued a written statement:

"The Broadway Children's Center community is devastated by the tragedy that has taken place. Broadway Children's Center owners and staff have and will continue to fully cooperate throughout this process. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family."

Kelly Stover, who sent her two daughters to the Broadway facility, said parents have launched a campaign to re-open it.

"They are just nurturing and wonderful and instill creativity and listen to our kids," she said, "and practice every safety precaution I can imagine."

The day care, which has been licensed since 2010, has appealed the state's emergency suspension.

This was not the facility's first emergency suspension following a death.

In April 2016, a 7-month-old boy died after attending Broadway Children's Center. State regulators briefly shut down the day care. They allowed it to reopen but placed restrictions on the number of infants in care and required Broadway to create a "safe sleep policy."

State investigators called the 2016 fatality sleep-related but described the cause as "undetermined" and concluded there were no suspicious circumstances, Morawski said. The Oregon Department of Human Services separately found no abuse or neglect in the 2016 case, according to records of childcare deaths previously provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

State officials have released few details about the latest death. The state's suspension order says the October incident occurred under "similar circumstances" as the 2016 fatality.

Regulators wrote that "the known factors and incidence of child mortality due to sudden infant death syndrome," plus the involvement of the same individual caregiver, make the occurrence of two similar events "extraordinarily rare."

State regulators on Friday also confirmed a third incident linked to Broadway Children's Center. In 2015, a child who attended the facility was diagnosed with a skull fracture, Morawski said. The circumstances of that injury are not clear.

Both children who died were under the care of the same day care employee, according to state records. The caregiver was also "involved" in the 2015 incident, Morawski said, although she declined to elaborate.

The Office of Child Care has suspended the Broadway worker's registration to care for children.

Ryan Anfuso, a Portland attorney who represents the caregiver, said none of the investigations have ever resulted in any finding of wrongdoing.

Broadway Children's Center, at 1205 N.E. Broadway, is licensed to care for up to 60 children at one time. Broadway's website says it serves kids aged 3 months to 5 years old.

The suspension of the Broadway Children's Center comes under the direction of Miriam Calderon, Oregon's new Early Learning Director, who has pledged stronger sanctions against day cares.

The Oregonian/OregonLive this year has reported on lapses and breakdowns in state regulations, including a 2016 state audit that concluded Oregon's oversight system posed an "elevated risk for major incidents of child harm."

Oregon has subsequently seen two deaths this year, the first in August at a Gresham day care. It voluntarily closed, and the fatality remains under investigation.

Calderon disclosed the latest death in a narrowly distributed press release posted on her agency's website on Oct. 12. It went unreported until Thursday. Calderon's announcement pledged accelerated enforcement and more licensing inspectors, who will conduct more unannounced visits at day cares.

"This baby and their family are at the center of my thoughts and the beginning of my prayers, but we owe them more than that," Calderon said in the news release. "Every Oregon family deserves immediate action and change."

The news release did not mention Broadway Children's Center by name, nor did it note the 2016 death or the 2015 skull fracture.

Anfuso, the attorney for the caregiver, criticized Calderon's statement -- and its implication that someone is at fault for the baby's death -- as "outrageous." He described it as a PR moment and urged against a rush to judgment.

"Every child in Oregon does deserve the highest quality of care, and immediate action and change are certainly in order in instances of abuse, and where the state has failed in its role to regulate. But we don't know what happened. And scapegoating a childcare provider isn't going to give us the answers that this young child, his family and our community needs."

The parents of the 10-month-old who died declined to comment Friday through a family spokeswoman.

Portland police were called to the Broadway Children's Center at 1:33 p.m. on Oct. 4 on a report that a baby was not breathing, said Burley, the police spokesman. The infant was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died two days later.

Portland police's child abuse team, Oregon's Department of Human Services and the Office of Child Care are all investigating, Burley said.

An autopsy has been conducted, Burley said, but obtaining toxicology reports could take several weeks.

"For us, right now, it's a death investigation," he said.

Classrooms at the Broadway Children's Center were dark on Friday, and a metal gate blocked the front entrance where a smattering of toys were spread along a sand pit. Inside one classroom window, chairs had been neatly stacked but bags and coats still hung in place.

Stover, whose two children attended Broadway until the closure, said her youngest was the only other infant being cared for on Oct. 4. Stover said she was interviewed by police detectives and child welfare officials in the days after the death.

Stover said the facility's sleep-safety rules are very clear: Babies are always put to sleep on their backs, with nothing beside them in their cribs. Staff members check on the babies every 10 to 15 minutes.

The two infant deaths are horrible coincidences, she said, but not indicative of a dangerous environment. Parents have been pressing state officials daily to reopen the center, Stover said, and have been sharing updates with one another via email.

"I know the people," she said, "and I know that there's no way that they did anything to cause harm to a child."

Lynne Palombo, Fedor Zarkhin and Jeff Manning of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed.

-- Brad Schmidt

-- Molly Young