Early last year, Long Beach police received a phone call about a toddler who might be in jeopardy.
The boy's name was Josue Rey Maldonado. He was 1 1/2 years old. His paternal aunt had been baby-sitting him at the mobile home park where she lived.
When the boy's mother came to pick him up, the aunt decided the mother might be too intoxicated to care for him and called the police.
In retrospect, the seemingly small gap between what happened and what might have happened after police got the call raises questions about whether Josue, who died six months later, could have been saved — and offers a window into a broader debate about how to prevent the death of children because of abuse or neglect.