A young Brooklyn, N.Y., father is facing charges of assault and endangering the welfare of a child after being accused of brutally beating his 16-month-old daughter, leaving the infant in critical condition.
According to the New York Post, little Nylah Lewis is not expected to survive after authorities say she was attacked by her father, Shaquan Taylor, 19, during a visit Sunday to his home in the Coney Island section of New York City’s Brooklyn borough.
CBS New York reports that police sources say the beating left the little girl with skull fractures, bleeding of the brain and severe bruising, and she is in a coma.
“They’re waiting on a test to see if there’s any brain activity at the moment,” Nylah’s aunt Janice Munford told CBS New York.
Police sources told CBS that the child was under the care of her father during a legal visitation on Father’s Day, but after a few hours, Taylor contacted the child’s mother and told her there was a serious problem and to come pick up the child.
“She just said he said to get everything and just get out, that’s it,” Munford said. “I don’t know if he was on something.”
Munford told the news station that Taylor did not mention that Nylah was hurt or may have needed to go to the hospital, but the girl’s mother quickly noticed that the child was having trouble breathing. As the young mother tried to leave with her child, Taylor allegedly chased after her and hit her in the face, according to the report.
Taylor was later arrested at the scene, where he denied harming his daughter, saying that she fell off the bed and off a toilet seat.
According to the Post, doctors refute that claim, saying that the injuries “could not have been caused from falling.”
“The child is not expected to live past the next 24 hours,” prosecutors said at Taylor’s arraignment Monday night, the Post reports.
Taylor was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Read more at the New York Post and CBS New York.