A baby girl in the Bronx on life support after her mother’s boyfriend repeatedly punched her in the head has died one week after being rushed to the hospital, police said Sunday.
One-year-old Imani-Dior Monique Mitchell died Friday from injuries allegedly inflicted by Jerome Thomas, 19, on Aug. 28 while the baby’s mom was out getting groceries.
When LeNesha Mitchell returned to her apartment on Union Ave. near E. 152nd St. in the South Bronx after 45 minutes, she found her little girl laying on the bed semiconscious and struggling to breathe with her face and head badly bruised, especially around her left eye, she told police.
Thomas, Mitchell’s boyfriend of four months, admitted to police that he struck the little girl twice on the side of the head with a “heavy hand,” making her cry, the criminal complaint against him alleges.
“She was the light, she changed me. She made me feel more confident about myself as a first-time mother. I was learning from her. She was happy, smart, funny. Before I walked out that door to go to the supermarket, I picked her up. She reached her hands to me and gave me a kiss on my cheek. Then I came back to all of that,” Mitchell told the Daily News, bursting into tears.
Obtained by Daily News
Imani-Dior Monique Mitchell. (Obtained by Daily News)
Medics rushed the girl to Harlem Hospital, where she was initially listed in critical but stable condition.
“When she went into the ambulance, she was stable and still breathing on her own, but she was going into shock and having difficulty breathing,” said LeNesha Mitchell’s sister, who asked not to be named.
But her condition quickly deteriorated. The baby needed to be placed on a ventilator and life support and had extensive subdural hemorrhaging on the right side of her head, according to court papers. Doctors tried desperately to save her life, even removing a part of her skull in an attempt to relieve the pressure from her brain swelling, but ultimately she could not recover.
The day after Imani-Dior entered the hospital, police arrested Thomas and charged him with felony assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Thomas was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court and ordered held without bail.
Thomas is currently in custody at the Robert N. Davoren Center in the Bronx. His next court date is Sept. 12.
