TORRENT OF GRIEF
Mom pours out anguish over son, 10, beaten to death, allegedly by her beau
The mother of a 10-year-old boy brutally beaten to death over two terrifying days howled in agony above her child’s casket Tuesday at a gut-wrenching funeral for her lost son.
“I loved you!” shouted mom Aquisha Johnson, her voice hoarse and her teary eyes hidden by sunglasses. “I loved you!”
The overwrought mom, barely able to walk and assisted by two relatives, later reeled to the front of the Riverdale Funeral Home to remember the son who died inside their Harlem apartment from unspeakable abuse — allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend, Ryan Cato, charged with the murder of helpless Ayden Wolfe.
“You are my king,” said Johnson, her dark blue dress in contrast with her son’s electric blue casket. “I miss you. I love you. I am lost every day I’m not with you. I love you. Until I can hold you in my arms again, you will forever be with me.”
Johnson broke down at the Bronx service before finishing her poem of love and loss, with a family member stepping up to deliver the last line: “Ayden means educated, enlightened, intellectual ... adorable, youthful, devoted, energetic, nurturing.”
Many mourners wore white T-shirts with images of the slain boy on its front, with “Wolfe” written on the back along with the number 10 — his age. The boy’s dad, Darnell Wolfe, who last saw his son in June 2020 after Ayden disappeared with Johnson, his ex-fiancée, sat quietly with relatives during the service.
“Hanging in there,” he said solemnly afterward. “Taking it step by step.”
The boy wore a bright blue suit matching the color of his casket for the service, which ended with a brief scuffle between mourners on either side of the parental divide. Burial was scheduled for the Rosehill Cemetery in Linden, N.J.
Cato, 34, remained jailed without bail on Rikers Island for the savage two-day beating of the child, who died March 6 after a stomping that left the boy bruised literally from head to toe. Little Ayden suffered fractured ribs, a lacerated spleen, lacerated liver and a lacerated kidney before his body gave out.
Cops said the suspect had a bruised right hand when arrested.
The suspect’s rap sheet included a pair of recent arrests: One for assaulting a yellow school bus driver in Brooklyn last month, and the other for allegedly choking the mother of his 6-year-old autistic son as the small boy watched inside their Williamsburg home.
He moved in with Ayden’s mother after he was barred from any contact with the choking victim, authorities said.
A cousin of the mom who drove nine hours straight from North Carolina for the sad farewell recovered from a panic attack to address the mourners with an uplifting message.
“I just want to put a smile on y’all’s faces because Ayden was a really sweet boy,” she said. “And I don’t think he would want us to be crying like this . ... We all have memories.”