Arius Williams, the father of Montrell Williams, the 2-year-old Bronx boy believed to have been found dead in the East River after going missing for a month, has been charged with murdering the toddler, police sources said Thursday.
Williams, 20, has been locked up on Rikers Island since Monday, a day after he allegedly threatened Montrell’s 17-year-old mother with a knife and told her he had thrown the the boy into the Bronx River, cops said. He was sent to jail for being in contempt of court for refusing to disclose to a Bronx Family Court judge where the missing boy was.
On Thursday he was charged with murdering his son.
Police recovered the badly decomposed body of a small child believed to be Montrell about 50 yards from the East River shoreline near the Whitestone Bridge Wednesday afternoon. The city’s Medical Examiner’s office will conduct an autopsy to determine how the boy died.
NYPD
Montrell Williams, 2, was last seen by his mother on May 10. (NYPD)
The body resembled the missing child and was dressed in a Calvin Klein T-shirt — the same article of clothing the toddler was wearing when he disappeared with his dad a month ago, heartbroken family members say cops told them.
“We are grieving,” the mother of the child said outside her Bronx home Wednesday evening. “My family is grieving. I have no words.”
Cops recovered surveillance video showing someone throwing a bag or package into the Bronx River from a bridge shortly after the boy went missing on May 10.
“There are moments that we captured that were unthinkable,” NYPD Chief of Department John Chell told WABC Eyewitness News Wednesday. “What a catastrophe. What a shame. What a horror, totally evil.”
Montrell was visiting his dad so the two could attend a Mother’s Day celebration with Williams’ family. But Williams got into a fight with his mother and stormed out of the home with little Montrell. That was the last time anyone saw the child alive.
A few hours later, Williams showed up at a cousin’s home without the child. When family members asked him where his son was, all he would say was, “He’s gone. He’s gone!” they said.
Concerned family members reached out to police but they were told nothing could immediately be done because Montrell was on an approved visit with his dad, law enforcement sources said.
When Williams didn’t return Montrell by that Monday, the child’s mother and maternal grandmother went to Family Court. A Family Court judge issued a warrant for Williams’ arrest on May 30, officials said.
Williams arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Thursday.
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