Terrible: Man Punched Stepdaughter's Stomach So Hard, Her Organs 'Exploded'
I can't believe that a grown man would do something so vicious to a child.
A man is charged with murdering his stepdaughter after beating her to death in New York City.
The 3-year-old girl who died after cops found her unconscious in her Queens apartment suffered a fatal beating by her stepdad, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The Queens District Attorney’s office hit Mark Jenkins — the stepfather of little Bella Edwards — with murder and assault charges, after an autopsy showed the tot died Monday from blunt force trauma to her stomach.
Other medical tests on Bella’s body are still pending, and police have not ruled out the possibility of sexual abuse, cop sources said.
Bella’s mom Shamika Gonzalez said on social media that she’ll most miss her little girl’s hugs and kisses.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to protect you,” Gonzalez said in an emotional Facebook post to the child.
Gonzalez left the apartment at about 9 a.m. She returned about 5 p.m. and found Bella unconscious in her bed about a half-hour later, sources said.
A frantic 911 call around 6 p.m. brought cops to Gonzalez’s Rockaways apartment, where officers frantically tried to revive the unconscious toddler.
Cops rushed Bella from the family’s Beach 105th St. apartment near Shore Front Parkway to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where she died, police said.
The girl showed signs of trauma consistent with abuse, sources said. The NYPD Special Victims Unit is investigating her death, as are detectives from the 100th Precinct, where a number of family members gathered in grief. -(Noah Goldberg, Nicole Hensley, John Annese, NY Daily News)