Rep. Couture tells KOMO News death of 4-year-old shows need for stronger child protection laws

could more have been done to get four-year-old Ariel Garcia away from his mother before she allegedly killed him a state lawmaker says Washington laws surrounding drug use by parents are too lenient and may leave children like Ariel In Harm's Way Kos Jeremy Harris is following the story for us and Jeremy where does the investigation stand tonight well the next step will be when prosecutors make a decision on those potential first-degree murder charges but we're asking what was done in the days and weeks leading up to Ariel Garcia's disappearance and death Evert police won't tell us if they had been at that house prior and the state says they can't talk about the specific case but a state lawmaker says the law laws here in Washington are too lenient and are leaving kids in dangerous situations there are still many unanswered questions about the death of four-year-old Ariel Garcia police say his mother violently killed him on the day she was supposed to give up custody of him to her mother they think it is safe to keep kids in homes where there is fentanyl abuse and I think that is crazy state representative Travis Coture wants to know if the state could have intervened sooner had we removed little aiel and placed with grandmother that would have been the perfect scenario you view this as a failure of state law as opposed to just a failure from the state agencies acting under what the law currently allows them to do it's a failure of both cotour proposed a bill this year that would have ordered child removal from situations where a parent is using drugs but it's a divisive issue I want to be very clear substance use alone is not a reason for removal nor should it be opponents say drug use shouldn't be enough to remove a child the legislature ended up passing a bill saying judges should give quote great weight to drug use especially fenel when deciding whether to remove a child it also expanded Support Services for Families with addictions in the case of Ariel Garcia his grandmother said her daughter's drug use was making her violent and she feared she would hurt the child had CPS had Department children youth and families had the tools to say that that is an imminent harm uh we're going to seek uh removal of the child and maybe a kinship placement with the grandmother long before that um maybe he would still be alive now while the state says they can't comment on this case specifically they did tell me today that they do an after action review or an investigation in cases where a child is killed from suspected abuse or neglect or when a family has had involvement with State Child Protective worker in the year prior to the child's death so that leads me to believe that there will ultimately be a report that can be made public that will detail all of the events leading up to the state's involvement and up to uh Ariel Garcia's death reporting live in Seattle Jeremy Harris Como news