Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a seventh-month-old boy whose mother brought him to the hospital nearly a day after his death.
Dameen Mohammed's mother, who the Post identified as Anwar Jawad, and grandmother brought him to NYU Lutheran Medical Center on Saturday around 6:45 a.m., police said. Mohammed had suffered bruising on his back and chest and had a collapsed lung, though it's not clear if his injuries were caused by a resuscitation attempt.
Doctors at the hospital called police to report a possible child-neglect fatality, and Jawad told officers that she realized her son didn't look well while she was at her home in New Springville, Staten Island early Saturday morning, the Daily News reports. Instead of taking Mohammed to the hospital, however, Jawad drove him to her mother's house in Bensonhurst, where the pair decided to take him to the hospital, police told the News.
The Post reports that Jawad's car traveled across the Verrazano Bridge and into Brooklyn around 8 p.m. Friday, then crossed the bridge back into Staten Island around 4 a.m. on Saturday. An hour later, around 5 a.m., Jawad's car traveled back across the bridge into Brooklyn.
Jawad reportedly called a lawyer when approached by police at the hospital, but was not arrested Saturday night. The NYPD obtained search warrants for her car and her apartment.
"The mother's pretty upset, like any mother would be," an NYPD officer told the Post. The Administration for Children's services is also investigating Mohammed's death.
"This is something you never think could happen," one of Jawad's neighbors told the Staten Island Advance. "It's horrible, absolutely horrible. How could this happen to an innocent baby?"
Another neighbor, Yana Khabinskaya, told the Post that Mohammed's parents "smoke and sell drugs."
"We've called the cops, but it seems cops really didn't do anything," Khabinskaya said. "You see him walking around smoking pot and walking with his toddler."
Police sources told Gothamist there are no updates and the case is still under investigation as of Sunday morning. No arrests have been made.
