An 8-year-old Alabama boy has been charged as a juvenile for beating to death a baby girl after they were left home alone while their mothers were at a nightclub, police said on Tuesday.
The little boy, who was not identified, beat one-year-old Kelci Devine Lewis to death last month because she would not stop crying, said Lt. Sean Edwards, Birmingham police spokesman. The boy is in the care of the state's child welfare agency, the Department of Human Resources, Edwards said.
"This is by far one of the saddest cases that I've witnessed since I became a police officer," Edwards said during a news conference, broadcast on the local Fox news station.
Edwards said the eight-year-old got "extremely agitated" because the baby refused to stop crying, and committed "violent acts."
The child was found dead in her crib the next morning, on October 11.
The mother of the toddler, Katerra Lewis, 26, was charged with manslaughter.
The boy was the oldest of six children left alone as his mother, who has not been charged, and Lewis went out, Edwards said. The mothers and children all lived together.
"You have an adult mother who had the audacity to leave her one-year-old in the custody with several other children," said Edwards. The other children ranged in age from two to eight.
Copyright Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
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