‘IT JUST HURTS’
DAD IN ANGUISH AFTER TOT’S BEATING DEATH:
The beating death of a 4-yearold Brooklyn boy was ruled a homicide Thursday — with the slain child’s father recalling his prescient sense that something was wrong during their recent final get-togethers.
Dad Jamal Eubanks told the Daily News that his son Jayce “Jace” Eubanks seemed a little bit sad and clingy during their visits on the two weekends before a fatal beating ended the boy’s life Sunday.
“He was not as happy,” Eubanks, 28, told The News. “I just thought he really missed me. Because he was telling me not to go. I never took those as red flags.”
Little Jayce was beaten to death inside his mother’s apartment in the Gowanus Houses. On Thursday, after completing an autopsy, the city medical examiner determined the cause of death was battered child syndrome — with signs of recent blunt trauma to his tiny torso.
The little boy was about to start school this week.
Eubanks typically visited with Jayce and his 5-year-old brother on weekends but couldn’t make it over this past week.
“It just hurts me that the one weekend I didn’t have time to come and see them ...” said Eubanks, his voice trailing off. “I’m not going to get closure.”
Police arrived at the building around 5:30 a.m. Sunday and found the boy badly hurt.
Neighbors reported screams coming from the home in the early morning hours.
EMS rushed the boy to Brooklyn Hospital, where he died.
The 27-year-old boyfriend was taken into custody, but no criminal charges have yet been filed in the homicide. The boyfriend was taken to a hospital for a psychological exam.
“I didn’t know anything about the family situation being bad,” said Eubanks, speaking slowly as if still in shock. “My younger son, I knew he was not particularly happy. These past two weeks, I’ve been trying to communicate with him.”
Eubanks recalled seeing scratches on the 4-year-old in recent weeks but was assured by both his son and the boy’s mother that the marks were self-inflicted and nothing to worry about.
“It was literally half of me trusting my kids’ mother, and me trusting my son saying he was OK,” the dad recalled. “Obviously, he was not OK.”
A day care the brothers attended reported to police on Aug. 26 the children were bruised, police sources told the Daily News earlier this week.
With police observing, the brothers were interviewed by workers from Safe Horizon and the city’s Administration for Children’s Services after the report was made. One brother had a scratch on his ear and said it was from itching his ear. The other brother had a bruise on his shoulder and said it was from horsing around with his sibling.
Eubanks has yet to speak with their sons’ mother, adding that he wants to talk with the slain little boy’s 5-year-old brother Jaheel — who was taken into the custody of the Administration for Children’s Services after his brother’s death.
“I just want to talk to my older son right now,” he said. “That’s the only person I want to talk to.”
The older boy, in a video obtained by The News, described the fatal assault on his little brother to horrified neighbors and detailed how the boyfriend punched him before issuing a warning to keep his mouth shut about what happened.
“He picked him up and he dropped him,” the 5-year-old said on the video. “And [Jayce] can’t breathe.”
The death of little Jace was one of three city child abuse fatalities in the span of a week.
Aisyn Gonzalez, 4, suffered fatal head and rib injuries Saturday while home alone with his mother’s boyfriend. His death has been ruled a homicide but no arrest has yet been made.
Three days earlier, 15-monthold Legacy Beauford was beaten dead, allegedly at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend, inside their Bronx apartment. Keishawn Gordon, 23, is charged with murder, manslaughter, aggravated sex abuse and sex abuse, said police.