A 23-year-old man was charged with murder on Monday after telling investigators he threw his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son against a wall after the boy woke him up, police said.
The boy, identified by police as Nasir Parris, was found around noon on Sunday by officers responding to a 911 call asking for help at a home on East 68 Street, in the Bergen Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, authorities said. . The officers found the child unconscious, unresponsive and with a bruised stomach.
On Monday, the man, Latrell Lewis, was arrested and charged with murder, police said. It was not clear on Tuesday afternoon who Mr Lewis’ lawyer was and attempts to reach his relatives were unsuccessful.
The boy died of injuries to his head and torso, said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner.
Mr Lewis, who was caring for the boy, admitted during interviews that he threw him against a wall for waking him up, police officials said in a news briefing Tuesday afternoon.
The boy’s mother woke up, found the child in distress and called the police, they said.
An autopsy revealed the boy had a fractured skull and severe internal injuries, said Joseph Kenny, assistant chief at the detective agency.
On Tuesday, the boy’s relatives were able to remove toys and other items from an apartment where the boy lived. They loaded some of it into a car. They left a toddler-sized mattress and a bed frame with a garbage can.
Wendy Thomas, who said she was the boy’s grandmother, sat sobbing on the steps of the brick building. At one point, she pulled a plastic toy ATV from a balcony into the apartment.
Ms Thomas said Mr Lewis, who was not the child’s father, was in a relationship with her daughter. There was “no explanation” for why Mr Lewis would have killed the toddler, she said.
‘I can’t understand his state of mind,’ Mrs Thomas said, adding, ‘I’m going back to the back of my mind to see where I’ve missed something? Where did we miss signs?”
Ms Thomas said her family were told by police on Monday that Mr Lewis had confessed to the murder.
“I literally listen to my daughter cry every day saying she has failed her son as a mother,” Ms Thomas said. “You can’t say anything because you can’t take a life back.”
Mary Kramer reporting contributed.
