A Michigan woman and her boyfriend are in custody after one of her twin sons died and the other was hospitalized in a suspected beating.
“You see injuries that are compounded by a little bit of healing and then, aggressive again,” Ecorse police inspector Timothy Sassak said according to Fox 2 Detroit. “I could go into some detail about what the doctor said, but it would make you sick.”
Cops said they were called to an apartment at about 4 a.m. regarding an unresponsive child, according to the Fox 2 report. They couldn’t revive the victim, 1-year-old Zyaire, and learned his brother, Zion, also showed signs of injury. The mother, Lisa Reed, was taken into custody; her boyfriend, James Gibson, allegedly fled.
“They tracked him to River Rouge and to his dad’s house in Romulus,” Sassak told The News-Herald. “He was calling people saying he’s not going back to jail. They found him in Sumpter Township at his uncle’s house. He had been getting dropped off by members of his family.”
Zyaire’s death is suspected to be from a beating.
Police said Gibson had a criminal record: he was out on parole for a child abuse case.
The twins’ uncle, Ricky Tanner, called them “two very innocent boys, happy loving children,” according to Fox 2. He said Zion had a “broken hip, broken nose, bleeding on the brain.”
He had choice words for the man suspected for causing the damage.
“A coward,” he said. “A violent coward did that.”
A fundraiser to pay for Zyaire’s funeral raised $9,500 as of Thursday afternoon. An autopsy was pending as of Wednesday. The defendants were scheduled for an arraignment to take place Thursday. Charges were pending.
[Screengrab via WXYZ-TV]
