A CHILD IS SLAIN AND NEIGHBORS ASK, WHY?

NE GIRL IS SECOND D.C. TODDLER TO BE FATALLY BEATEN IN A WEEK

Gabriel Escobar

Washington Post

The pregnant women and the young mothers of Rosedale Street NE had shared what little information was available, and it was only when the D.C. police mobile crime lab van pulled up early yesterday that the grim truth became generally known: Tezia Tiarva Allen was dead, just two days before her second birthday

It was the second time in a week that a child had been beaten lifeless in the District, and the young mothers who live in the quiet section of Kingman Park, just south of Benning Road NE, reacted with a mixture of horror, anger and sadness at the latest loss.

"I want somebody to answer that," said Demetria Crowley, whose baby is due Aug. 15. "What can a 2-year-old do to get them that angry?"

"Put the guys . . . involved with child killings in the electric chair," said Catherine McCollum, 33, due to give birth five days before Crowley. "They should go to hell."

The D.C. medical examiner ruled the case a homicide, based on the results of an autopsy. One official familiar with the examination said the girl had blood in her stomach, bruises on her face, rib fractures and liver, spleen, pancreas and stomach lacerations.

Detectives questioned a man who lives in the apartment. No one had been arrested in the case. Police released no information on the girl's parents, and neither they nor any other relative could be reached.

Yesterday's killing occurred six days after Dontray Kevin Bradley was found dead in his aunt's apartment. Court papers on the case say the woman's boyfriend, Reginald Napoleon Hunter, beat Dontray because he urinated on Hunter's shoes.

An autopsy on Dontray concluded that he died of a massive blow to the back, probably delivered more than 24 hours earlier and while he was lying on his stomach.

At the time, Dontray and two siblings were living with a maternal aunt, a placement decision made by social workers who said the mother's drug abuse prevented her from caring for them properly, city officials said.

Hunter had been arrested for assaulting Dontray's aunt, and at the time of the beating there was a court order instructing him to keep away from the family. He has been charged with second-degree murder.

Larry Brown, a spokesman for the D.C. Department of Human Services, said the city agency was not providing any aid to Tezia or her mother.

Neighbors said the family had not been living on the block for long.

In Tezia's case, police said they were called to the 2000 block of Rosedale Street about 12:40 a.m.

The girl was taken to D.C. General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:26 a.m.

McCollum's mother, also named Catherine, said the girl's mother accompanied her to the hospital. A short time later, the man who lives in the house walked out with another child and the two left in a police car, said Catherine McCollum, 50.

The whereabouts of the second child, who neighbors described as about 3 years old and naked at the time, could not be determined yesterday. Police said the child was not treated at a hospital, and Brown, the spokesman for the agency, said he had no further information on the case.