Brownsville Mom Who Killed Son, 4, With Broomstick Gets 17 Years

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — A Brownsville woman will go to prison for nearly two decades for beating her 4-year-old son to death with a broomstick last year, prosecutors said. Zarah Coombs, 28, was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in state prison and five years of supervised release after admitting to battering the boy, Zamair Coombs, and leaving him to die in a plastic tub, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said.

"Little Zamair was an innocent boy who did not deserve to die," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. "It is truly disturbing that his mother, the person who was supposed to care for his wellbeing and safety, viciously beat him and left him for dead."

According to prosecutors, Zamair had gone to the refrigerator to find food after his mom refused his request for something to eat on Jan. 25, 2017.

Zarah Coombs became enraged after he accidentally dropped an egg on the floor and beat him with a broomstick until he lost consciousness, prosecutors said. Coombs put her son's knocked-out body in a Tupperware container partly filled with water that was being used as a tub, then went to breastfeed her newborn baby, according to prosecutors.

Coombs' boyfriend found Zamair in the tub when he got home around 8:45 p.m. and took him to Brookdale Hospital, where he later died, prosecutors said. The boy's torso, limbs and head were covered in more than 60 "blunt impact injuries," prosecutors said.

Coombs, who had confessed to the crime, pleaded guilty last month to first-degree manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, the DA's office said.

(Lead image: Zarah Coombs, 28, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for beating her 4-year-old son to death. Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office)