Mother Speaks Out After Woman Charged In Death of 4-Year-Old Boy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A grieving mother is seeking answers after her 4-year-old son died while in the care of another woman at a midtown Manhattan apartment earlier this week.
Myls Dobson died Wednesday after police found him unconscious in a bathroom at the Ritz Plaza building on West 48th Street, CBS 2's Andrea Grymes reported Friday.
Mother Speaks Out After Woman Charged In Death of 4-Year-Old Boy
Kryzie King, 27, who had been caring for the boy since his father's arrest last month for alleged bank fraud, was charged with first-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment Thursday night.
She was arraigned Friday afternoon. Judge Laura Johnson set bail at $500,000 bond/$250,000 cash.
King told police she had put the boy on the bathroom counter and left the room briefly, Grymes reported Thursday. Police said King told them Myls fell and landed in the empty bathtub.
Prosecutors, however, said King tortured and starved Myls. They said King admitted to burning and beating Myls, as well as leaving him outside in the freezing cold.
New York Police Department Commissioner Bratton described Myls' injuries as horrific.
Myls' mother, who lost custody of the boy in 2012, spoke publicly Friday.
A distraught Ashlee Dobson said she was turning her life around to regain custody of her son, Dardashtian reported.
"I love my son," Dobson told reporters. "He always loved me, he gave me kisses, said, 'Mommy, I love you,' and I said, 'Myls, I love you too, baby.'"
Mother Speaks Out After Woman Charged In Death of 4-Year-Old Boy
Dobson had weekly visitation rights, but last saw her son in November, her representatives said.
Police sources said the Administration for Children's Services took Myls away from his mother because of neglect and placed him in his father's care.
Dobson's adviser, Tony Herbert, said she lost custody of her son because of financial reasons.
"She was in a shelter, they didn't think it best that she would be in that shelter with a baby, so they gave him to the father," Herbert said. "Somebody dropped the ball."
Now, Dobson wants to know how the city could take her son away from her and place him in an environment where he would ultimately be abused and die, Dardashtian reported.
"The city of New York put the child in the care of the father, who they knew was a felon," Herbert said. "You open up a case and then you close it thinking everything is fine? No. That has to be answered. Who did that, who authorized that?"
Sources told CBS 2 that Myls' father has 13 prior arrests, and did time in jail for attempted robbery, but was paroled in 2009.
"This family is distraught, the mother is in extreme pain as she was working very hard to get her life together so as to once again gain custody of her son and raise him with the love that only a mother can give, now she can't do that," attorney Philip Lights said in a statement.
"What is it that can make a person torture and assault such an innocent angel the way that this child has been? I am appalled, hurt and disgusted that someone would allow for this child to have been treated with such violence with no way to defend or protect himself," Herbert said in a statement.
Prosecutors said they expect to upgrade charges against King to murder once the medical examiner determines the cause of death.
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