A 15-month-old boy stopped breathing at the county's home for abused, neglected and abandoned children Tuesday afternoon and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, marking the fourth time since Aug. 4 that a child who had contact with the child welfare system has died.

The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the death, said Capt. Terry Lesney of the Crimes Against Youth & Family Bureau.

Speaking outside the county's foster home, Child Haven, on Pecos Road near Bonanza Road, Lesney said the police are interviewing all the staff members and caretakers who were responsible for the boy.

"It's a very sad mood and melancholy" inside Child Haven, she said.

Staff at Child Haven noticed the boy wasn't breathing about 2 p.m. on Tuesday and immediately called 911 while also administering "emergency procedures," said Gina Olivares, spokeswoman for the county.

Paramedics spent about 25 minutes trying to revive the child at the scene and used a machine, believed to be either a respirator or a ventilator, to get the child breathing, she said.

The paramedics transported the boy to North Vista Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:05 p.m., according to a statement issued by Thomas Morton, director of the county's Department of Family Services.

"This is a sad and tragic day, and has a tremendous impact on the child's family and the staff at Family Services. A child's loss of life is devastating to all of us at Clark County and to our community," Morton said.

The boy was staying at a Child Haven cottage with about 18 other infants, Olivares said.

Staff discovered that the boy wasn't breathing during a routine shift change, she said.

Because of the shift change, eight or nine staff members were inside the cottage along with two nurses, which is more than usual for the cottage, she said. There is normally one staff member for every four infants, she said.

The 15-month-old boy had been at Child Haven since June 29, Lesney said.

She said the boy's caretaker, a relative, had dropped him off at Child Haven because the caretaker believed that he or she couldn't adequately care for him any longer.

While police didn't know the child's medical history, the police were informed that the Child Haven staff gave the boy antibiotics on Aug. 3 for an ear infection. Lesney said it was unknown if that was a factor in the child's death.

Lesney said this, to her memory, was the first time in four years that a child has died inside Child Haven, which has been troubled recently with overcrowding issues.

There are approximately 2,100 children in foster care in Clark County and about 160 in Child Haven. In July, the county reported there were 228 children and infants inside the facility.

There was at least one death of a child at Child Haven in 2006. In January, Ryan Ellison, an infant, died in the parking lot of Child Haven.

Ellison, who was born premature and weighed less than two pounds and tested positive for drugs, was driven to Child Haven by a foster parent for a visit with his birth parents, authorities said at the time.

Staff realized something was wrong and paramedics were called. Ryan died that day.

The death of the 15-month-old on Tuesday follows several high profile deaths in recent weeks of other children who had contact with the child welfare system.

On Aug. 4, a 7-month-old boy in foster care died after he was hurt at his foster parent's home in the 2700 block of Dune Cove Road, near Sahara Avenue and Fort Apache Road.

The boy, known as "Baby Boy Charles," sustained a head injury but exactly how the child was injured remained undetermined Tuesday, police said.

The case is still being investigated, Lesney on Tuesday said.

On Aug. 5, a 5-year-old boy who was the subject of an open Child Protective Services case drowned in a pool at a mobile home park where his family lived. The family was being monitored by CPS because of negligence, police said, adding that the boy's death was an accident and it was not a criminal matter.

On Aug. 7, a 14-year-old, Jason Bright, was shot and killed at an apartment complex near Sierra Vista Drive and Swenson Street, police said. Bright had been a ward of the county and had run away from Child Haven numerous times, his birth parents said.

The county refused to confirm or deny the parents allegations, citing the fact that his death was the subject of a police investigation.

Clark County's child welfare system has been intensely criticized in the last year. A panel convened to investigate 79 child deaths from 2001 to 2004 in Nevada found that 11 children in the county's custody died.

In one high-profile case, 2-year-old Adacelli Snyder died in 2005 because of malnutrition due to neglect. It was discovered that CPS closed its case on Snyder's family about a year before she died.

Earlier this year, 2 1/2-year-old Everlyse Cabrera disappeared from her foster parent's home in the 6500 block of Diamond Point Court, near Centennial Parkway and Camino Eldorado in North Las Vegas.

A child previously in the custody of the foster family sustained an injury while in the foster parent's custody, police said.