Baby beaten to death is second in a week
Brian Reilly and Catherine Toups
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A toddler was found beaten to death early yesterday morning at his Northeast home, just six days after another child in the city died from a beating on the eve of his second birthday.
In yesterday's case, a girl who would have turned 2 years old tomorrow
was killed by what the D.C. medical examiner said were severe blows to her body.
No arrests have been made in the death of Tezia Tiarua Allen, who was found unconscious by her mother yesterday morning in their two-story brick row house in the 2000 block of Rosedale Street NE, police said.
According to police and witnesses, Tezia's mother was dropped off by a cab at her home about 12:30 a.m. Within minutes of arriving, neighbors heard loud shouting between a man and a woman before the 20-year-old mother came dashing out of the house screaming, "My baby, my baby."
Fire Department paramedics were called and tried to resuscitate the little girl at the scene before taking her to D.C. General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:26 a.m., authorities said.
Tezia and her 3-year-old brother had apparently been left in the care of their mother's 23-year-old boyfriend earlier in the day, said a police official. Investigators interviewed the mother and the boyfriend but have received conflicting information, the official said.
As investigators worked to solve Tezia's homicide, a defense investigator for the man charged in the death of Dontray Kevin Bradley on June 3 said police may have arrested the wrong suspect.
Andrew Harris testified at a bond hearing yesterday that at least two friends of Rhonda Bradley, Dontray's mother, said they had seen her abuse the boy by punching and slapping him and hitting him with a belt.
Mr. Harris said Miss Bradley told one of the friends that if police ever questioned her about the child's injuries, she would blame it on her boyfriend, Reginald N. Hunter, against whom she had filed assault charges in May.
Mr. Hunter was charged with second-degree murder in the case and is being held without bond.
The assault charges are pending a November trial.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert M. Scott told public defender Allen Levy yesterday he wanted to hear for himself what Miss Bradley's friends have seen before deciding whether to set a bond for Mr. Hunter.
Judge Scott ordered he be notified today whether the defense wanted to continue the hearing Friday by putting the witnesses on the stand.
In yesterday's hearing, Metropolitan Police Detective Susan Blue testified that Miss Bradley told her she found the child lifeless at their home in the 4200 block of Sixth Street SE. She initially told police she didn't know what had happened to the child.
But Miss Bradley later claimed that her boyfriend beat the child for urinating on Mr. Hunter's feet the night before, according to police.
A medical examiner ruled Dontray died from being struck with a fist while lying on his stomach. The blows split his liver in half and caused him to bleed to death.
Mr. Hunter was charged in the case the day after Dontray's death. It would have been the toddler's second birthday.
On the same day Dontray was beaten to death, a 7-month-old infant died of a fractured skull in Fairfax County. Police later charged Jennifer Salas, 20, of Fair Oaks with the death of Christopher Moyer of Linden. Christopher died at Fairfax Hospital after Ms. Salas, the child's baby sitter, called paramedics to report he was having trouble breathing, police said.
The killings come amidst what police are calling a sharp increase in child abuse cases that have left at least five area children dead since February.
More than 3,800 cases of abuse were reported to city child care officials since October, said Department of Human Service officials. In all of 1991, child services investigators confirmed 2,881 cases of abuse.
"We are seeing a rise in the number of calls to our child-abuse and neglect hotline," said Larry Brown, a DHS spokesman.
D.C. police spokesmen said yesterday they could not recall a time in recent history with so many incidences of child abuse:
* On Feb. 1, David Comfort jumped from the Windsor House apartment building in the 1400 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW holding his 3-month-old daughter, Maggie Star Comfort. Both Mr. Comfort and his daughter died in the jump.
* Less than a month later, 24-year-old Michelle Colette Wood was arrested after she allegedly threw her infant son out a third-story window in Northwest after arguing with the baby's father, police said. The child, 7-month-old Antoine Dominic Wood, survived and was taken to Children's Hospital.
* In March, Ely Lindsey was arrested and charged in the Feb. 29 beating death of his girlfriend's 4-year-old son, Darius Brown. Mr. Lindsey had reportedly become frustrated with the child for wetting his bed.
* Margaret Rankin and Christopher Solomon contributed to this report.