'Thuds, bangs' and screams
Nabe heard Ayden’s deadly ordeal
Disturbing new details emerged Tuesday about the abuse suffered by a 10-year-old boy in the hours before his stepfather allegedly bludgeoned him to death.
The day before little Ayden Wolfe was found naked and unresponsive inside the family’s Harlem apartment, a neighbor heard alarming noises.
At about 3 p.m. last Friday, the neighbor “heard banging and thuds against the wall and a man yelling inside,” the complaint states.
“The person stated that the male voice was yelling, ‘Do you want me to beat your ass, too?’ The female voice was saying ‘Stop!’ The person also heard a soft voice moaning in pain.” The argument continued for about 40 minutes, the neighbor told the police.
The details were revealed in a criminal complaint against Ryan Cato, 34, who was arraigned late Monday on two counts of seconddegree murder and one count of endangering the welfare of a child for the boy’s tragic slaying. He was ordered held without bail.
On Saturday, at about 11:45 a.m., the neighbor heard dreadful sounds in the midst of another fight. “The person heard banging and thuds coming from the apartment,” the complaint says, “and heard the same male voice yelling ‘You thought yesterday was something? You think this s--t is a game.’ ” The neighbor again heard whimpering.
Just 2½ hours later, police found the boy unconscious in the bathtub of the St. Nicholas Houses apartment and his stepfather had a badly swollen right hand, according to prosecutors.
The child was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced
dead. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was battered child syndrome.
The complaint says Ayden’s body was covered “from head to toe with bruises and abrasions — on both arms and hands, both legs and feet, head and face, neck and torso.” The child that neighbors described as a quiet “little angel” had multiple broken ribs on both sides of his body and had been beaten so severely that he had deep cuts on his spleen, liver, kidney and renal vein, the papers say.
The child’s injuries were consistent with being punched, kicked, stomped or hit with hard objects, according to the city Medical Examiner’s Office.
Meanwhile, the NYPD is investigating the actions of two cops who were called for a domestic dispute to the same building the day before Ayden’s murder.
“I have directed the Office of the Chief of Department to review the police response on Friday to determine if the officers’ actions were consistent with all department procedures and whether our current procedures need to be revised,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tuesday in a statement.
Shea said a 911 caller reported an argument on the fourth floor of the building at 260 W. 131st St. and that a child was present but did not provide an apartment number. The cops responded but found nothing troubling and left, Shea said.
The boy’s mother was investigated by the city Administration for Children’s Services for neglecting him when he was a baby, police said. Cato had also been probed by the agency in an unrelated case for beating another woman in front of their children.