Spate Of Child Deaths Move Local Leaders To Discuss Abuse

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Community leaders are telling Brooklynites to be on the lookout for potential indicators of child abuse this week after Brooklyn woman Zarah Coombs beat her 4-year-old son to death with a broomstick and left him to die in a makeshift bathtub last Wednesday. Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams attended a service on Sunday at the Brownsville New Life Cathedral to talk to community members about how to better identify the early signs of child abuse.

Adams said to be on the lookout in their communities of potential indications that someone might be abusing a child, such as:

• Exhibiting aggressive or extreme behavior
• Constant hunger
• Depressed or listless behavior
• Eating disorders
• Failure to thrive
• Fear of going home
• Being dressed inappropriately
• Loss of interest
• Poor hygiene
• Poor relationships with other children
• Sexually inappropriate behavior
• Sleep disturbances
• Unexplained absences from home

Sunday's service was part of Adams' month-old program, Operation C.A.R.E. (Child Abuse Response and Engagement) devised to educate Brooklynites on how to catch child abuse in their communities. Adams created C.A.R.E. in December 2016 after a string of child abuse cases the past few months shook Brooklyn. To keep up with child abuse investigations in your neighborhood and other crimes, subscribe to Brownsville-East New York Patch to receive email newsletters and news alerts.

Three-year-old Jaden Jordan of Gravesend, Brooklyn was found unable to breathe, badly beaten and covered in feces in his home on Nov. 28. He suffered a fractured skull and lacerated liver and kidney and died after five days in a coma, investigators said. Just one month before that, 6-year-old Zymere Perkins was beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend with a wooden broom stick and hung by his shirt from the back of a bathroom door after he defecated in the living room, according to the criminal complaint.

Of the 10,056 reports of state child abuse reports between July and September 2016, 30 percent of those reports were from Brooklyn, according to Adams referencing numbers from the New York City Administration for Children's Services. At least one-third of those Brooklyn reports were committed by a person with one prior, according to Adams.

Coombs, 26, is on suicide watch after a psychiatric evaluation at Riker's Island and awaiting her next court date on Feb. 24. She has been charged with murder and possession of a weapon, cops said. The young mother said she "blacked out" with rage when she beat her son, Zamair, with a broomstick last Wednesday and blamed post-partum depression for her behavior, the New York Post reported. The murder of Zamair is under investigation by the DOI.

"We cannot play the blame game, that's too easy," Ama Dwimoh, founder and former chief of the Crimes Against Children Bureau in the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, said shortly after the death of 3-year-old Jordan. "The lives of our children rely on each and every one of us to do our part. Children have to come first; there’s no second, third, or fourth. We’ve got children who are living in home-grown terrorism within their homes, where they sleep at night. I ask everyone: See something, say something."

If you see what you think might be an indication of child abuse, call 911 or the state Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment hotline at (800) 342-3720.

Photo of Zamair Coombs via Facebook