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Boy beaten to death on second birthday

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Kristan Metzler

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The same day Dontray Kevin Bradley should have been celebrating his second birthday, a medical examiner yesterday covered the toddler's small body and pronounced him dead.

D.C. police said the boy, who was taken to Greater Southeast Community Hospital about 4 a.m. yesterday but could not be revived, was beaten to death. Hours later, his aunt's boyfriend, 27-year-old Reginald N. Hunter, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

Dontray lived with his brother and sister at the home of his aunt, Rhonda Bradley, in the 4200 block of Sixth Street SE. Miss Bradley, who has an infant daughter, was the guardian of her sister's children, officials said.

Miss Bradley left the children in Mr. Hunter's care Tuesday afternoon and went to visit some friends in Northwest, neighbors said. She returned about 12 hours later with a bag of hamburgers and told her boyfriend to wake the children and change their diapers before they ate, neighbors said.

When Dontray would not wake up, she ran to a neighbor's house to get help.

"She was banging on the door and said to call 911 because Dontray wasn't breathing," said Shawniece Mathis, who ran over to Miss Bradley's house with another neighbor, Lishawn Kyle.

Miss Mathis tried to resuscitate the boy.

"It was too late. He was purple from the face down, and his hands and feet were cold," Miss Kyle said.

"I went over there to give him mouth to mouth and [Mr. Hunter] said, `Don't touch him. Leave him alone,' " Miss Mathis said. "When I lifted up his shirt, there were bruises on his chest."

Larry Brown, a spokesman for the D.C. Department of Human Services, said the other children - aged 3 months, 1 year and 3 years - were staying yesterday afternoon with their maternal grandmother in Maryland.

"We placed them with their aunt in January because their mother left with someone who was unwilling to care for them," Mr. Brown said. A Human Services worker visited the house a few months ago and found the children to be in proper care, he said.

Miss Mathis said Miss Bradley called her about 7 a.m. yesterday morning from the 7th District police station.

"She still was in a state of shock. She kept saying, `He's right here and he's going to wake up,' " Miss Mathis said.

Several people in the neighborhood stood outside yesterday and talked about the death, while another group sat on a front porch, peering into the house at television reports of the boy's death.

"It's such a shame," said Richard Brown, holding a young child on his lap.

Meanwhile, Fairfax County police are investigating the death yesterday of a 7-month-old boy who received a head injury while at his baby sitter's Chantilly house, Fairfax County police said.

Medics were called to the house in the 4400 block of Oak Creek Court when Christopher Moyer began having trouble breathing about 11:30 a.m. Monday. Christopher, of 63 King David Drive in Linden, was taken by helicopter to Fairfax Hospital, where he was found to have a head injury.

1992 Jun 4