Last week a story emerged about a young mother and her girlfriend abusing a 5-year-old boy. “Police said the women routinely beat the boy, forced him to put his hands on a hot stove, burned his body and genitals with cigarettes and often would not let him eat or drink.”
Police began to suspect the couple after they had an appointment with the Department of Children and Family Services and brought in a child that wasn’t theres. When asked to see their child the two disappeared. On Friday, June 13th Starkeisha Brown, 24, turned herself in to the LAPD, after officers released the woman’s picture on the news. The other woman, Krystal Matthews, 21, was arrested Saturday by detectives when she showed up for her appointment at the county Department of Children and Family Services.
The boy, who was in guarded condition at a local hospital, was rescued Monday by a stranger who found him abandoned and called authorities.
On that same day, the two women had an appointment with the Department of Children and Family Services and had brought the healthy child of a mutual friend and tried to pass him off as Brown’s son.
At a news conference Friday, LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said that because of the burns from the stove, the boy no longer can open his hands.
Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD’s Abused Child Unit said in a statement Saturday that the abuse was “akin to a level of torture we hope our military personnel would never encounter.”
Residents in the neighborhood, said they were shocked when they found out what was going on to the child. Not only could they not understand how a mother could do that to their child, but how it could go on for so long without knowing.
Williams’ 9-year-old grandson saw the boy often, and occasionally the two played together.
Another neighbor said, “If I [had known] anything, they would’ve been caught a long time ago.”
The question now stands, how could someone do something like this? Apparently, both woman had histories of violence, but police will not provide details at this point. Times are hard and “the poverty rate in the neighborhood [they lived in], in the 90061 ZIP Code, is nearly triple the national average.” But even then, is that enough? What in the world could justify two people ganging up and abusing a child like that?
I keep trying to find something to balance this argument, but I truly have no idea, do you? If so, please send in a comment and let me know.
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1 LA Wounded: Police Dog Killed by Officer, Three Bodies Found Dead… | LA.CityZine.com - Los Angeles // Jun 25, 2008 at 8:00 pm
[...] plead not guilty in torture of young boy - The three women accused of torturing a 5-year-old boy, have all pleaded not guilty to the charges. A Compton court commissioner accepted [...]
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