Posted on 03/28/2003 6:11:55 AM PST by Incorrigible
Friday, March 28, 2003
BY DORE CARROLL AND TOM HAYDON
Star-Ledger Staff
[Woodbridge, NJ] -- In a crime described by authorities as "horrific" and "senseless," a 3-year-old Woodbridge boy was beaten to death with a baseball bat and sexually assaulted by a 10-year-old-boy from his neighborhood, authorities said.
The dead boy, Amir Beeks, was lured away from the Inman Branch Library in the Colonia section of Woodbridge by the older boy on Wednesday afternoon, and was bludgeoned and assaulted near the suspect's home about a block away, authorities said.
Police discovered Amir still alive, but badly injured, face down in a drainage ditch that runs alongside the suspect's home. The younger boy was in the library with his 17-year-old sister who was using a computer before he went missing.
Amir was rushed to JFK Medical Center in Edison and placed on life support, while his mother, Rosalyn Singleton, and other relatives kept vigil. He died at 11:15 a.m. yesterday.
The older boy, who was not identified by authorities, was charged yesterday with murder, felony murder, kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and two weapons offenses. He is being housed in the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center.
Because the suspect is under age 14, he cannot be charged as an adult, according to state law, and the case will remain in Family Court. If convicted, the boy could be sentenced to as much as 24 years in juvenile custody, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said.
The boy was arraigned yesterday in New Brunswick by Family Court Judge Roger Daley and was being held pending a court hearing next week.
"There's no word that characterizes this," Kaplan said. "Horrific. Senseless. There's nothing that describes this or justifies this."
The 10-year-old was known in his neighborhood as a troubled and sometimes violent boy who threw rocks at animals and vandalized property. The state Division of Youth and Family Services had investigated the boy's parents a number of times since shortly after his birth, following up allegations of abuse or neglect. The DYFS file on the boy, whose father is legally blind and whose mother died four years ago, was closed last year.
The boys lived a few blocks from each other in a tight-knit enclave near the Garden State Parkway. The streets are lined with modest Cape Cod houses and are filled with school-age children who play on their lawns and quiet side streets. At the center of the neighborhood is the Inman Avenue Park. Amir was found near the stream that runs through the park.
Neighborhood residents described the 10-year-old as a loner who occasionally broke bottles in their driveways and threw rocks at their dogs. One neighbor said she repeatedly complained to DYFS that the boy was not properly cared for.
"The boy was not supervised," said Linda Jones, who lives on Courtney Court, behind the suspect's home. On one occasion, Jones said she saw the boy's father screaming at him.
Jones said the boy smashed her shrubs with a baseball bat, left his toys strewn around her yard and scribbled with markers on her fence. Jones said she confronted the boy's father about her property damage, and complained to DYFS, Woodbridge police and township officials.
Other neighbors described the boy as friendly, but sad, and said they had seen him cutting the grass in his family's back yard and shoveling snow for neighbors.
Amir's family lived several blocks away, closer to Inman Avenue, and police believe the boys did not know each other.
Katherine Johnson, Amir's aunt, said police told her the 10-year-old hit Amir on the head with a baseball bat and dragged him inside a plastic playhouse in his back yard. Neighbors saw police remove the playhouse Wednesday night.
"It's just too much for us to bear. It's too much for anybody to bear," said Johnson, as her sister, Singleton, sobbed on the front steps of the family's home, a quarter-mile from the library.
"I want my baby. I want my baby," cried Singleton, 37, clutching a photograph of the boy.
It was not known why the 10-year-old lured the little boy out of the library at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, but Amir's relatives said police told them the older boy claimed Amir was pestering him.
When Amir's sister, Crystal, noticed he was missing, she began calling for him and looking around the library with a friend and other patrons. Police were called and a witness who recognized the 10-year-old said he saw the little boy walking down the street with him.
Authorities then went to the home of the suspect and found Amir nearby. He was missing about 45 minutes.
The suspect's father said yesterday his lawyer advised him not to elaborate on the case.
"I'm very upset," he said, adding that he was "grieving."
The boy's father formerly worked at a newsstand at Newark Penn Station, neighbors said. The boy's mother, who grew up in the Woodbridge neighborhood, was also blind, and died of cancer several years ago.
Woodbridge Mayor Frank Pelzman said he met Amir's family at the hospital Wednesday night after learning of the attack.
"My heart goes out to them. I feel very sorry for them," the mayor said.
Micah Rasmussen, spokesman for Gov. James E. McGreevey, said the governor called the victim's family yesterday to express his sympathy.
"The governor knows the family of the victim," Rasmussen said, describing them as acquaintances he made when he was the mayor of Woodbridge.
"He was very shaken," Rasmussen said of McGreevey. "He expressed his condolences, and talked about what a good family they are."
Rasmussen said the governor "will absolutely be getting more information" from Human Services Commissioner Gwendolyn L. Harris about the role DYFS played in the suspect's life.
The suspect was familiar to DYFS as recently as 2000, according to two state sources, when the agency investigated an allegation that he had been physically abused. There were other complaints of the boy not having anything to eat at school, coming to class unkempt, and not getting medical attention.
A vocational counselor from the state Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired had repeatedly visited the home to assist the boy's father, who was raising the boy alone after his wife died.
Meanwhile, the child underwent therapy, the sources said, and DYFS involvement came to an end last July when school officials reported to the agency that the boy's behavioral problems were improving and tutoring sessions were improving his grades. The social worker also reported the father was capable of parenting the boy.
Children from the neighborhood normally would attend the Oak Ridge Heights Elementary school on Inman Avenue, but the 10-year-old did not.
Woodbridge Superintendent Vincent Smith refused to discuss the boy's school record, but said crisis counselors will be available if needed.
"All students are protected under the privacy act," Smith said, referring to a law governing student information.
Staff writers Jim O'Neill and Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.
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How interesting
would it be to make public
the social worker's
notes from the sessions
of his "therapy?" Are more
"troubled" bombs ticking?
"It took me six months to get my gun permit in NJ -- the good-meaning folks in Trenton denied my first application because they said my fingerprints were "unreadable." Even my local police dept. thought that was ridiculous and far-fetched. "
A carry permit or just a purchase permit? Whenever I go through the purchase permit process it takes three months that which should take 10 minutes. It seems the PD and the state drag their feet on purpose.
Don't forget the parents. I have a few men in my workplace who were actually having a conversation about buying their 6-8 year old daughters "real short short outfits, because they have nice long legs and like to show them off". Another man said his 6 year old daughter is a "Brittney Spears wanna be, and she is hot" (meaning his daughter). Sexualize them and this is what we get.
I agree, and I am sure porno is not the only thing happening in his "home".
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