‘Baby’s teeth fell out’

Josiah did not survive the injuries, dying before he could reach the San Fernando General Hospital. A 27-year-old male relative has been arrested for the killing.

When Newsday visited Josiah’s home at Caratal Road in Gasparillo yesterday, the child’s parents, Faraz and Mary Mohammed, had left to witness the autopsy and make funeral arrangements. The couple has another son, Jamal, seven.

Josiah’s grandmother, Hanna Nash, 53, witnessed the beastly act. Yesterday, the woman recalled feeding Josiah and putting him down to sleep on her bed around 11 am. Nash said the relative jumped over a wall into the bedroom.

The relative asked her for a cigarette, Nash said, and she gave it to him.

He left, but minutes later, Nash said, the relative jumped back over the wall. "I say what yuh want boy, go back over. But he kept looking all around so I say he come to kill me," Nash said.

Fearing for her life, Nash said she walked out of the bedroom and left the relative in the room with the baby. "Soon after, I hear Josiah cry out once.

"When I walk in the room I see him (relative) holding the child by his legs and slamming his head on the ground from side to side."

Demonstrating the actions of the relative, Nash said the attack was so brutal that the baby’s teeth fell out.

Nash said she screamed out, "murder! allyuh come!" But even as the grandmother screamed, the relative kept bashing Josiah’s head.

Josiah’s father, Mohammed, and other relatives, rushed into the bedroom. The relative immediately dropped the infant’s battered and bloody body on the floor. While Mohammed picked up his son and rushed him to his vehicle, other family members grabbed hold of the relative. They tied his hands and feet with a piece of rope.

Newsday was told that the relative was an out-patient of St Anns Hospital. Referring to the relative’s close relationship with baby Josiah, Nash said, "We did not think he would ever do anything like this.

Earlier that morning, he (relative) walk Josiah and hug him up." Josiah was a baby who had just started learning to walk on his own.

Grandmother Nash said the relative was a coke addict who recently broke up the louvres in the house. Up to yesterday, the man was still in police custody. A few years ago, Nash said, the relative attempted to burn down their home.

Visiting the scene was a party of policemen headed by Supt Maharaj, ASP Noel and Insp Khan.