A 12-year-old girl who was mercilessly tortured by her stepfather in the Bronx appeared in a TikTok video dancing to the song “Still Alive” despite enduring what her mother described as a “long road to recovery.”
Joshua Burnside, 29, allegedly jabbed his 12-year-old stepdaughter with two knives, a fork, a crochet needle, a spoon, tongs and a plate, before driving what prosecutors with the Bronx DA’s office revealed on Wednesday was a 6-inch-long needle through her nose and into her brain.
Burnside was arraigned on an indictment before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Alvin Yearwood Wednesday for attempted aggravated murder, attempted murder, assault, attempted assault, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Burnside inflicted the horrific torture on his stepdaughter after stabbing his 31-year-old wife and her daughter in the torso before slashing her face inside their E. 173rd St. apartment near West Farms Road in Crotona Park East on Oct. 22, said prosecutors.
The attack left the girl suffering severe injuries, both physical and emotional, her mother wrote in a GoFundMe posted on Nov. 2.
“This senseless act of violence has left her with severe physical injuries, emotional trauma, and a long road to recovery ahead,” the mother wrote. “She’s facing overwhelming medical bills for emergency care, surgeries, therapy sessions, and ongoing rehabilitation.”
In the Nov. 11th TikTok video, the girl’s eye appears disfigured as she dances alongside her mother under the caption “Tried to murder me and my baby.”
In the more than five weeks since it was posted, the GoFundMe has raised $45.
“[My daughter] is a bright, resilient young lady,” the girl’s mother wrote on the GoFundMe. “She brings joy and laughter to the ones around her. She’s a loving big sister and an awesome daughter.”
The defendant attacked his wife amid a heated argument inside the family’s sixth-floor apartment around 11:15 p.m., when the victim picked up a knife to defend herself and her husband snatched it from her hands, stabbed her in the stomach and slashed her face with it, cops said.
When the woman ran out of the apartment screaming for help, Burnside turned to his horrified stepdaughter, who witnessed the attack on her mom, and began to repeatedly stab her about the body, face and head.
A neighbor who lives on the fifth floor of the building attempted to give aid to the woman, calling 911 in the process.
“She came knocking on my door. She was knocking on everybody’s door looking for help,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be named. “Her face was slashed and she was stabbed in the abdomen. She said she had been attacked, (that) it was her ex-husband and her kid might be dead.”
Throughout the attack, Burnside spared his own children, ages 5 and 2, who were also in the apartment, prosecutors said.
Medics rushed the 12-year-old girl to NYC Health+Hospitals Jacobi, but she was later taken to Cohen Children’s Hospital in New Hyde Park, where surgeons removed the object imbedded in her brain, said prosecutors.
Burnside is being held without bail. He is due back in court on Feb. 23.
