CALGARY -- Alma Buchanan says she is relieved there will finally be justice for a little eight-week-old boy allegedly slain by his father.

"I'm glad there's going to be justice, he was just two-months-old," said Buchanan, who was friends with Bryson Dorey-Fox's parents.

"This little guy didn't even know what it was like to be loved or what is was like to celebrate his birthday or Christmas."

Bryson Dorey-Fox's father, Jamie Allen Dorey, 29, was arrested Monday and is now charged with manslaughter in the death of his son.

Police said the cause of death was blunt-force trauma, but would not elaborate.

Bryson was a happy, vibrant baby with a smattering of hair, just starting to lift his head up and given a clean bill of health during a doctor's visit days before he was rushed to hospital clinging to life on Aug. 1, Buchanan said yesterday.

His mother, Carla Fox, took him there after coming home to find him in his basinette, struggling to breathe, his lips blue, Buchanan said.

She said seeing the boy unconscious with a grape-fruit sized bump on the side of his head -- his tiny skull said to be cracked from front to back -- and on life-support was gut-wrenching.

"It was really, really heartbreaking," said the emotional woman, who is a mother of a teenager. "I had just held him in my arms the day before."

Bryson, who was born premature on May 19, died two days after arriving at hospital.

Police called his death a homicide, ruling out family claims the boy's deadly injuries were caused by their dog.

"I was there for his birth and now, unfortunately, I can say I was there for his death," Buchanan said.

Now, she is bracing to do what she can to be the boy's voice and if need be testify in court.

"Police told me not to go far, (that) I'm a key witness," she said.

Bryson's mother, however, said police "are wrongfully accusing Bryson's father."

The hospital is "responsible for my baby boy's death," she said yesterday.

"As Bryson's mother, I'm going to find out the truth. I don't know why they are not investigating the hospital."

Alberta Health Services spokesman Don Stewart said he's unaware of any complaint being file about Bryson's care.

NADIA.MOHARIB@SUNMEDIA.CA\