Ma parties as tot dies: cops
FIREFIGHTERS dousing a blaze in a Brooklyn apartment early Tuesday found a dead 2-year-old girl who had been left in the apartment by her stripper mother, who had gone out partying, police sources said.
Kaleenah Muldrow’s body was found hidden under a bed in the third-floor apartment shortly after the fire had torn through the top of the Monroe St. building in Bushwick and was put out at 7:30 a.m., police sources said.
It’s believed the tot hid under the bed in a panic when the fire started an hour earlier, the sources said.
Police charged the child’s mother, Leila Aquino, 25, with endangering the welfare of a child and recklesss endanger-endanger ment, saying she didn’t return home until about 9:30 p.m..
“She was crying, yelling, ‘My daughter’s in there!’ ” said neighbor Shameeka Smith, 34.
Firefighters had put out the blaze, but didn’t find the body until Aquino showed up and said she couldn’t find her child.
When asked, she told investigators she left the toddler with someone — but then bizarrely claimed she didn’t know who she left the girl with, police sources said.
Kaleenah’s father was stunned Aquino wasn’t watching their child.
“I’m just at a loss for words right now,” said Kason Muldrow. “There’s really nothing I can say.”
Other relatives were equally heartbroken.
“She was beautiful,” said Muldrow’s mother Shelly Archibald. “We’re all devastated.”
Relatives said Aquino was usually a dutiful mother, who was always at her daughter’s side.
“She used to take care of her,” Kaleenah’s paternal great-grandmother, Jean Archibald, 73, said of Aquino. “I’ve never heard of (Aquino) doing anything like this. I guess people change.”
Aquino and Kaleenah lived in the third-floor apartment of the building, which is owned by Muldrow’s father. Muldrow moved out after the couple broke up.
The cause of the blaze remained under investigation.