CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. – Wednesday, 10 miles north of California City, a Regional Transit bus driver stopped and offered a ride to a man with a 2-year-old toddler on the side of the road. Officials said the man boarded the bus and told the driver the boy, later identified as Pharoah Vanvactor, was not breathing.

Around 7 a.m, officials said they received a call from the bus driver and paramedics were dispatched to the corner of Nueralia Road and California City Boulevard where they met the bus.

Despite attempts to revive the child, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officials questioned the man who turned out to be the boyfriend of the victim’s mother.

Sheriff’s Homicide Detectives took over the investigation and deemed the death “suspicious.” California City police later confirmed the child died as a result of blunt force trauma. The case is being treated as a homicide.