A 9-year-old girl New York girl was found dead Sunday with bite marks on her back and head trauma, according to police.
The incident happened in an apartment above a restaurant off of Lincoln Place in Crown Heights, the New York Post reports. Patrons at the restaurant below reportedly complained of a foul smell emanating from upstairs, “almost like sewage dripping into the restaurant from the apartment.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the girl, who has not been named, lived in an apartment with her mother and a sister, according to Bart Hubbuch, the owner of a restaurant, Memphis Seoul, which sits directly below the apartment.
“Very well mannered,” Hubbuch said of the children. “The mom was a nightmare though. She was always screaming at them. She had this little dog and was really skinny.”
Emergency responders pronounced the child dead at the scene after her mother called 911 and said she wasn’t breathing. Hubbuch added that cops who arrived at the scene were emotional over the child’s death.
“It’s a sad situation. The cops even themselves were emotional about it.”
A medical examiner will determine how the child died, the outlet reports.
CBS 2 reports that the child’s mother was taken into custody for questioning but no charges have been filed. A 13-year-old who also lived in the apartment has been removed by social services while the investigation is ongoing.
“The superintendent came at probably about 1:15. About 10 minutes later he came out and he was kind of ashen-faced. Shortly thereafter, all of a sudden police and the paramedics and everything came,” Hubbuch said. “Everyone in this part of the neighborhood knew the people, knew of them.”
Meanwhile, investigators were given a copy of security footage that showed everyone who left and went into the apartment over the past 35 hours. Check back for updates.
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