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Police investigating 2-year-old's death as homicide in Charlotte

By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com
By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police are investigating a 2-year-old child's death in east Charlotte home as a homicide.

The medical examiner said the boy had broken ribs, bruises and a lacerated liver.

The boy also had a burn on the right side of his body consistent with the top of a lighter, the medical examiner said.

Police were called to the home in the 4900 block of Farm Pond Lane Monday for an unresponsive child. The victim's 25-year-old mother and a 30-year-old man were at the home with several other children.

The child was taken to Presbyterian Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The medical examiner said the child had new and old injuries.

"There are several adults who were in the position to provide care to the child in the days leading up to his death," according to the CMPD news release. "As part of the detectives continuing investigation, they are interviewing these caregivers and gathering evidence."

“I am really shocked because kids are out here playing all the time and they call me cousin,” Laura Hooper, who lives next door, said.

She said police questioned her Thursday about the case but she did not know until Friday that they believed the boy was allegedly killed and she said the little boy’s mother always seemed like a good parent.

“I don't know what happened but I can't see her hurting her child,” Hooper said.

Police said a man was in the house when they got there Monday night and they have spoken with him, but have not filed any charges in the case.

It’s not clear what relationship the man has to the case, but a woman who answered the door at his home in Rock Hill said he was not home.

“I briefly heard, but I don't know exactly what happened,” the woman said.

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