The mother of a 2-year-old boy has given up hope her son will survive in the wake of his father’s arrest for beating the toddler’s head in while blackout drunk in a Queens shelter and then not seeking help for four days.
“My baby means everything to me, everything,” Cyndy Williams told the Daily News through tears Wednesday as she faced the unbearable decision of whether to remove her son, Maliek, from life support. “They told me my baby’s brain has swollen to the point they can’t do anything.”
Little Maliek’s father Dayvon Morrison, 30, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly beating his son at the Manhattan View Hotel, which is being used as a homeless shelter, on 21st St. near 38th Ave. in Long Island City. He is charged with attempted murder.
After spending time with son in the shelter Friday night, he woke up the next morning to find Maliek had multiple bruises on his face — but did not seek medical help, prosecutors said. He later told cops he must have hit Maliek the night before but doesn’t remember because he had been drinking, according to court papers.
“We can’t blame this on substances or alcohol,” said Maliek’s mom, who lives in the Bronx. “I don’t know no amount of substance would make you do something you’re not capable of.”
Dayvon Morrison appears in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday. (Pool)
By Sunday, Maliek’s condition had worsened, but Morrison still didn’t seek medical help, prosecutors say.
Early Monday, when he returned his other child to their home in East Harlem, witnesses alarmed at little Maliek’s deteriorating condition called police, according to court papers.
Medics rushed Maliek to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell where he was treated for a blown right pupil, fractured pelvis, lacerations to his liver and damage to the brain, court documents state.
“Monday I was supposed to pick up my son, and his father wasn’t answering his phone,” Williams said. “Tuesday morning comes, I wake up from missed calls from police. [Morrison’s] other baby mom called me and I found out this man brutally beat my son. … By the time they got to Harlem, my son’s eyes were bulging out of his head.”
“The victim is currently in likely-to-die condition,” the complaint against Morrison reads.
“I want to make him as comfortable as possible,” Williams said of her son.
Cyndy Williams and her son, Maliek. (Courtesy of Cyndy Williams)
She posted a heartbreaking photo on Facebook of her son unconscious and intubated with a row of staples running from his right ear to the center of his shaved head. On the right side of his head is a large white bandage with the words “NO BONE” handwritten on it by medical staff.
Before the attack, Williams had been enjoying all the joys of motherhood.
“He started putting his words together,” she said of Maliek. “He started saying, ‘Mommy.’ He is always playing around. He was always smiling. He loved me.”
The Manhattan View Hotel in Long Island City, Queens. (Google)
A Queens Criminal Court judge ordered Morrison held without bail during his arraignment Wednesday.
“He seemed decent when I met him,” Williams said of Morrison. “The third time me and him hung out I realized this man wasn’t OK — and that I was pregnant. I fully was ready to take on being a single mother.”
But instead a bitter custody battle erupted over their son and ACS was also involved, she said.
“We are investigating this horrific abuse with the NYPD, and we are hoping the child will make a full recovery,” a spokesman for the city Administration for Children’s Services said.
Maliek (Courtesy of Cyndy Williams)
Williams said she shared custody of Maliek with Morrison very reluctantly.
“[Maliek] cried every time he had to go with this man,” she said. “Now my worse fear has become a reality.”