A man watching his girlfriend’s child was arrested Sunday afternoon and charged with assault after the two-year-old boy was found dead Saturday in Brooklyn, only hours before a baby girl was found dead in the Bronx in a separate incident.
After receiving a 911 call from the boy’s mother, police found Jacqil Degraffenreid, 23 months old, unconscious and unresponsive at around 4:30 a.m. in an apartment on Shepherd Avenue in Cypress Hills.
Emergency workers rushed the baby boy to Kings County Hospital Center, but he was pronounced dead.
According to the New York Times, Degraffenreid’s body showed signs of bruising. He had reportedly been left in the care of his mother’s boyfriend for about four hours, and she called 911 when she returned home to find him unconscious.
Both the mother and her boyfriend were questioned Saturday.
Yet an official told the Times that, when the two were questioned by police, the bruises on the baby’s body were inconsistent with the account they gave of what happened.
The boyfriend, Tyree Wright, 19, was arrested Sunday afternoon and charged with assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child, according to police.
The medical examiner will determine a cause of death in the case, according to the police department.
Baby girl died in Bronx
Only hours after the toddler boy was found dead in Brooklyn, police responded to a 911 call of a baby girl unconscious, also on Saturday morning.
Officers found Angelise Correa, 2 months old, unconscious and unresponsive at a Harrison Avenue residence in the Bronx at around 11 a.m.
Emergency service workers took her from the University Heights apartment to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead. According to the New York Post, the parents called 911 to report that she was unconscious, and her body showed no obvious signs of trauma.
