Boys, 4 And 6, Accused Of Attacking A Baby

January 31, 1989|By Michael Tackett, Chicago Tribune.

ST. LOUIS — When she was found, the baby, 14 months and about 20 pounds, lay unconscious in the basement. The weapons used to brutalize her-a shovel, a screwdriver, a hammer, a brick-lay at her side.

The two boys accused of attacking her told police and neighbors they did it because they thought the baby was ``ugly`` and they ``didn`t like her.``

They are 4 and 6 years old.

While the attack was taking place Saturday afternoon, police said, the boys` mother was upstairs taking a bath; their father was in the kitchen playing cards. The baby`s father was in another bathroom and her mother was in jail on unrelated charges of theft and assault.

``It`s a violent type of neighborhood,`` said a clerk at a store on the block Monday. She pointed to three bullet holes in the front door. A letter carrier hurrying along his route said drugs are dealt in the open on the street where the attack occurred.

All along the block, there are signs of neglect. Some buildings are boarded up with reminders sprayed in paint that bills have not been paid. One young man used a claw hammer to rip a board off one of the doors Monday afternoon.

Even in a time of increasing awareness about the scope of child abuse, whether by a parent or another child, the attack-by two boys so young, acting together-struck health care officials as unusually troubling. Experts said less than 5 percent of child abuse cases involve children beating children.

Police were leaving open a possibility that someone other than the boys were responsible for the attack, though no one else has been formally implicated. For now, they said they are relying on the stories of the boys and the others.

After the attack, the 4-year-old raced upstairs to tell his father and the baby`s father. ``She`s dead,`` the boy said, according to Police Sgt. Willie Smith. The baby`s father rushed her to Cardinal Glennon Children`s Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition on Monday.

Smith said the boys gave a ``vivid description`` of the attack. ``They described what they did and why they did it,`` he said. ``They said the little girl was ugly and they didn`t like her`` but simply shrugged their shoulders at other questions.

Despite the nature of the attack, Smith said the boys were allowed to remain in the home pending a determination in Juvenile Court on handling the matter. They are well below the statutory age of criminal responsibility.

The boys already had a reputation on their block for unruliness. Some people said they had broken out a car window to steal some juice. The Missouri Division of Family Services is examining how to provide them with some form of therapeutic intervention.

Students of child abuse cases said the surrounding circumstances are in some ways typical. Children who are the victims of child abuse have often been found to abuse other children, they said.

Smith said the boys` father faces child abuse charges in connection with a broken arm the 4-year-old received. Neighbors said the boy told them it happened when he didn`t bring home the correct change from the grocery store. ``Violence sometimes becomes the norm,`` said Joy Byers of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse in Chicago. Deborah Daro, the group`s research director, added: ``Children learn a pattern of behavior from the environment they are in. . . . This was just chilling.``

People in the neighorhood, a poor area on the near south side, were talking about the beating on Monday, trading stories in the small corner market.

``A lot of the kids don`t go to school even though they are school age,`` said one woman who works in the neighborhood. ``There`s nothing to motivate them. They are more or less on their own.``