State investigating after boy killed outside daycare

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- They came one by one with tears in their eyes. Mourners saying goodbye to a boy they didn't even know.

Maria Gallegos came on behalf of her late daughter.

"She loved kids," Gallegos said choking back tears. "So I'm doing it in honor of her."

But little Anthony Craft had a family who loved him, and parents who are devastated. His Godmother wants to know why the day care, at the corner Uvalde and Wallisville Road, would allow the grandmother of another child to pick up Anthony in her vehicle. Investigators say the car started moving, and little Anthony fell out before he was fully inside. He died at the hospital.

"You send your children to school. You think they're safe. You come to find out they're not safe because that's a complete stranger that has access to your child. Then you didn't even make sure the child was in the car," fumed Godmother Amber Mallet.

Mallet says the woman driving was not authorized by the family to pick up the child. State regulations require day care centers to maintain a "minimum standard." That means it needs to provide all parents with an authorization form, with names of who can pick up a child. Whether those guidelines were followed will now be a key part of the state's investigation.

"To know he's not here because of somebody's wrong doing, that's just crazy," said Mallet.

The owner of the daycare was nowhere to be found Wednesday. A state investigation could take up to a month. But first, little Anthony Craft's family must plan a funeral and say goodbye.