Investigation of the Death of a 11 Month Baby in Havana, Illinois
1-Year-Sometime Is Killed, and Mother'southward Boyfriend Is Arrested
The babe, Legacy Beauford, was killed in the Bronx. In Brooklyn, a 4-yr-erstwhile male child died after being found unconscious in a hallway.
The night before i-year-old Legacy Beauford died, he was crying uncontrollably.
That frustrated his mother's boyfriend, Keishawn Gordon, who was babysitting for him overnight on Wed in the family'south apartment in the Bronx'due south Webster Houses.
When police force questioned Mr. Gordon about Legacy's injuries after the baby's death, he initially told investigators that he gently squeezed the boy's tummy and tossed him in the air to pacify him, according to a criminal complaint filed in court later on Mr. Gordon was arrested on Friday.
Merely he afterwards admitted to punching him and sexually assaulting him, the law said. The medical examiner plant bruises all over Legacy's face and body, several broken ribs and a lacerated liver, which caused him to drain to death internally, according to the criminal complaint.
"I was frustrated he wouldn't finish crying," Mr. Gordon said, according to the complaint. "He kept throwing up. I mushed him. He was irking me."
Mr. Gordon, 23, was charged with murder and manslaughter in criminal court in the Bronx. His lawyer did not answer telephone calls seeking annotate on Sunday.
Since his abort, questions take arisen about whether the police force and child welfare authorities missed signs that the boy, who turned 1 in August, was beingness driveling. The Administration for Children'south Services said it was investigating the boy's death.
The instance follows the expiry in August of a 7-twelvemonth-old-girl, Julissia Batties, who was fatally beaten later on being reunited with her birth female parent. There take been no arrests in her instance, but child welfare authorities, courts and the police had been in frequent contact with her family since before she was born.
The law acknowledged they responded to at least three 911 calls about a baby crying at Legacy's home since May, including two that were reported equally possible child abuse. Officers found cipher suspicious when they responded to the commencement telephone call, on May 27, the law said.
The police responded on July 3 and Aug. 17 to the two subsequent reports of possible child abuse, just the responding officers reported that they had observed the children in the flat to be in good health with no visible marks or injuries, the police said.
In improver to the three 911 calls, the government received at least one other written report regarding the family.
A person briefed on the case, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential details, said that on July xiv, city social workers and a special victims detective were assigned to investigate a written report from the state's child abuse hotline that Legacy's older brother was existence sexually abused. The constabulary investigation was later closed, but no children were examined or interviewed, the person said.
It is unclear why the constabulary closed the case, or how the city's kid welfare agency handled any of the calls. On Sunday, the Police Department did non respond to a question about the July 14 call, and the Assistants for Children'south Services said it was forbidden past police force from discussing the family's history.
Mr. Gordon had a criminal tape that included at least five arrests, including on charges of robbery in 2019 and assault in 2018, according to the police.
In a second case in recent days where a young boy was killed, neighbors and family unit members also cast suspicion on a mother's partner.
On Sunday, officers patrolling the Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn were flagged downwardly to aid a iv-year-old male child, Jaycee Eubanks, who was unconscious. The officers tried to revive him equally they waited for an ambulance, but they were unsuccessful, and Jaycee after died at the hospital, co-ordinate to the police.
While the police were in the building, they encountered neighbors who said Jaycee's six-year-former blood brother had told them that his 27-twelvemonth-one-time stepfather had attacked him and his younger blood brother, co-ordinate to the police.
Non long after the officers' inflow, the stepfather called 911, threatening suicide. He was found unharmed and taken to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, the police said.
It is unclear whether the family has a history with the police force or kid welfare authorities.
Marquice Seals, 29, said he was walking up a stairwell in the building early Sun when he heard a woman screaming, "Telephone call an ambulance, that footling boy can't breathe! He's not moving!"
A moment after, he said he saw Jaycee laid out in the hallway face with his arms outstretched. His face was swollen and imperial. His mother and stepfather were crying equally his older brother stood close by, Mr. Seals said.
Within minutes, ii officers rushed into the hallway, and 1 began performing CPR, he said.
Mr. Seals said the mother's boyfriend told officers that Jaycee had fallen off the bed and had hitting his head.
"It didn't audio right," he said. "I'one thousand non going to laissez passer judgment, I wasn't at that place. Just information technology didn't sound right."
Nikeya Birmingham, 32, who lives straight above the family, said the couple has been in the building for about a yr. She said she had chosen the police at least four times because they were yelling at each other so loudly that information technology sometimes awakened her in the middle of the nighttime.
That was the case around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, she said.
"I was yelling through the pipes, 'Go to bed! Close upwardly!'" she said.
Withal, she said, she never heard the children or suspected they were being abused.
"He's supposed to be walking to school tomorrow like all these other kids, with a new backpack and new shoes," Ms. Birmingham said of Jaycee. "Now he'll never breathe again."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/12/nyregion/1-year-old-infant-dies-bronx.html
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