JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jasmine Garmon lost her 5½-month-old baby Marvin on Tuesday.
Police were called to the Southside Apartments on Westmont Street in the South Metro area, where the boy was unresponsive. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
"I feel like when he died, he just took a big piece of me with him," Garmon said. "He smiled at everything you did. He had the biggest, most beautiful smile. Everything, you eating and he's smiling, you talking to him, he's smiling."
The 19-year-old mother of four says the baby was sleeping in bed with her. She says when she fell asleep, he was on his back. But when she woke up, he was lying on his stomach.
"You could look at his body and see like it looked lifeless," Garmon said.
She said she tried to give him CPR but he wouldn't respond. So she raced downstairs and banged on her neighbor's door for help.
"She ran upstairs and gave him CPR or whatever, and he wasn't breathing. So another neighbor came over," Garmon said.
Garmon was on the phone with rescuers, who quickly arrived and took Marvin to Baptist Medical Center, where he died.
Garmon said she did not roll over him in bed. She thinks he died on his own.
"I think he suffocated in his sleep," she said.
Police said there was no obvious trauma to the child. They said an autopsy was pending.
The Department of Children and Families said it's investigating the death. It's also warning
"We're going to need to talk to people who knew that family," DCF spokesman John Harrell said. "We also will bring in the expertise of the child protection team, and that's a team of doctors who specialize in these cases."
DCF is warning parents of the dangers of sleeping with their children. Officials urge parents to remember the ABCs of sleeping. Babies need to sleep alone, on their backs and in their cribs.
"There are so many deaths we've had in our community," Harrell said. "We've had more than 100 infants who have died over a recent three-year period due to unsafe sleep practices, including co-sleeping."
Garmon's said her other children -- ages 4, 2 and 1 -- also slept in bed with her when they were babies because they would cry in their cribs.
Now she can't stop crying, knowing she'll never see her son Marvin again.
"I know he's in a better place or whatever, but I just want him here with me because that's my baby and I don't feel like he should've left," Garmon said. "He was 5 months. He didn't live his life."
An account has been set up at Wells Fargo to help the family with funeral expenses. The account number is 9387398044. It's under the name Jasmine Garmon.