BATON ROUGE - Aaron Hawkins, 25, was arrested Thursday for first-degree murder in connection with the latest child homicide in Baton Rouge.

"This baby is dead. In front of my eyes. In front of me," said Latoya Lacey, a resident of the Canterbury Square apartments where Hawkins' daughter was found unresponsive. "And they were pumping her, pumping her. Kept pumping her until they put her in the ambulance."

Lacey said the death was shocking to her because she knew the child and the father.

"We knew the little girl and saw him picking her up at the bus every day. Smiling and talking with her."

The 5-year-old was the third child murdered in Baton Rouge this year.

"I've never seen this. This is getting rampant," sais Sharon Paul, executive director of the Baton Rouge Children's Advocacy Center.

Paul says the center has seen a sharp increase in cases of children being abused.

"It's just horrible to think that these poor children are being abused to the point that they die."

Paul says reporting child abuse is like reporting any other crime, and it could save a child's life.

"It's anonymous, so all you are doing is alerting someone that there's a potential for what could happen, like the death of a child."

The center is open for children between ages 3 and 18 who are victims of abuse and witnesses to abusive situations.