OAKLAND PARK, Fla. — A grieving mother said on Wednesday that her slain 14-year-old boy had told her he was afraid of the 16-year-old boy who stands accused of killing him in Broward County.
Tiffany Simpson said she knew her son Jordan Dowdy wasn’t safe living in foster care, a state-supervised living arrangement, at a house in Oakland Park.
6 p.m. report:
Simpson, 36, said Jordan told her that he didn’t feel safe at the group home along Northeast Third Avenue, between 53rd Court and 56th Street, and worried about a roommate.
“The kid kept threatening him. I expressed to multiple people who were here within the home with him,” Simpson said, referring to 16-year-old Ruben Whitworth, the murder suspect.
Kerry Pittillo and Akyra Gulley are among the neighbors of the foster home who said the fatal stabbing was a tragedy waiting to happen since some of the house’s residents were so out of control that they had made threats to hurt and kill vulnerable neighbors and pets.
“Police have been out here several times,” Pittillo said.
Gulley said Jordan, who was a respectful neighbor, was the exception and was heartbroken when he was covered in blood, as Oakland Park Fire Rescue paramedics tried to save his life. BSO deputies reported Jordan died in the hospital.
“He had a big heart, he loved everybody that he came in contact with, he loved football,” Simpson said while holding pictures of Jordan wearing a football team’s uniform.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Ruben on Monday and accused him of stabbing Jordan after an argument and a fight in the house.
Corrections processed Ruben, who turned 16 on July 31, at the Juvenile Assessment Center, and he appeared in juvenile court facing a first-degree murder charge. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice released Ruben’s mugshot on Tuesday afternoon. His next court hearing is on Sept. 27.
Simpson said she was disappointed with the Florida Department of Children and Families. She said she wants BSO to hold the adults at the house who were supposed to keep her son safe accountable.
Records show the Hollywood Police Department involved DCF after a domestic violence incident involving her sons and Simpson’s boyfriend, Wilfredo Maldonado, a convicted felon who had been released from prison in 2015.
Simpson, who was born in Texas, was living in Hollywood and working in Hallandale Beach when Maldonado, who had a history of domestic violence, walked into her kids’ bedroom and attacked her sons on April 28, 2024, according to a police report and court records.
A grandmother who lived in the home with Simpson and the boys told police officers she saw Maldonado, who also lived in Hollywood, was armed with a knife when she saw one of the boys was injured, according to the police report.
One of Simpson’s sons had swelling on his bottom lip and lacerations on his right arm, and the other son had a laceration on his right hand, after the violence with Maldonado, according to police.
“I observed Simpson yell at her children ... the house was in disarray and dirty ... Simpson advised she has 9 children,” a Hollywood police officer wrote, according to the report.
Hollywood Fire Rescue personnel took a boy to the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. Police officers arrested Simpson for child neglect without great bodily harm, arrested Maldonado on two counts of aggravated battery, and contacted Florida DCF Child Protective Investigations, records show.
After Simpson’s son’s murder on Monday in Oakland Park, Felicia Harrell, Jordan’s relative, organized a fundraiser to help pay for the boy’s funeral.
“This was so sudden and horrific,” Harrell wrote on a GoFundMe page. “The entire family is struggling to understand and cope ... we need help.”
Local 10 News Assignment Editor Carson Merlo contributed to this report.
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