Mom charged in child slay
The mother of a 9-yearold Brooklyn girl found beaten and abused in her family’s apartment was charged Monday in the child’s death, cops said.
Shemene Cato, 48, is facing charges of murder, manslaughter, assault, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon in the slaying of Shalom Guifarro, cops said.
When cops responded to the Crown Heights apartment that sits above a restaurant at about 1 p.m. Sunday, Shalom was severely bruised and unresponsive, police sources said.
Neighbors told police of hearing “constant arguing” coming from the apartment, the sources said.
“I heard a lot of screaming and fighting from the apartment,” neighbor Jason Rahimzadeh told The Post on Monday. “I heard loud arguments at least 10 times, where they were screaming at the top of their lungs. The family kept to themselves.
“Everyone in the building is so nice and calm, but we all knew that apartment was trouble,” Rahimzadeh added.
Officers responding to the apartment Sunday said the dead girl’s sibling told them Shalom was “spanked” by her mom and put in timeout after having a temper tantrum before she died.
Police found an extension cord in the hallway of the apartment, as well as a branch and “a curved piece of furniture,” according to the sources.
Cops had responded to the family’s home for 14 separate domestic-violence reports before Shalom was found battered and unconscious Sunday, the sources told The Post.
Details of the prior police calls to the apartment were not clear, but the sources said the mother was the alleged victim in most of the reports.
None of the calls involved child abuse and the Administration for Children’s Services had never been called to the apartment, officials said.
The city medical examiner Monday ruled the girl’s death a homicide as a result of multiple force trauma.
Jessuan Sierra, the building’s super, said the family has lived there for three years.
“The two girls were nice kids,” he said.
Bart Hubbuch, owner of Memphis Seoul, the restaurant below the apartment, said he “frequently” saw Cato yell at the kids.
“The kids were quiet, well-mannered and welldressed,” he told The Post. “Their mother frequently cussed them out and wouldn’t let them play with the other kids on the block.”
Cato works for the city Human Resources Administration and retained an attorney through her union, the sources said.
It was not known who the attorney is.