Couple charged with child abuse after 3-year-old hospitalized

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Late Tuesday afternoon, police made two arrests in the assault case involving a 3-year-old boy.

Police charged Shamika Reaves, 23, and Corey McCree, 32, with felony child abuse.

Police said the child was unresponsive when paramedics arrived at a motel early Tuesday morning. He was taken to Carolinas Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

Investigators said the child was physically and sexually assaulted.

Police spent Tuesday morning and part of the afternoon inside Room 2211 of the Charlotte Express Inn on Lucky Penny Street trying to piece together what happened.

The call came in just before 4 a.m. When officers arrived, they found the boy with critical injuries.

Neighbor Howard Shankle stood with his own 3-year-old son and wondered what could have gone wrong.

 "I heard about it first thing this morning when I came out, and the first thing I did was say a prayer because if somebody touched this one right here they got to kill me," Shankle said. "You would never imagine that people would do that, especially to your own child."

"It's surprising, to me it is surprising," said hotel employee Laneka Hawkins.

Hawkins told reporter Mark Becker the couple in Room 2211 had been there for several months, but she did not see any signs of trouble.

"He seemed to me like a normal kid, who would do the normal things that a boy do," Hawkins said.
Reaves is the mother of the child while McCree is her boyfriend, police said.

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