A Brooklyn babysitter’s adult stepson has been charged with murder after police discovered his 3-year-old neighbor dead in his bathtub Sunday night, according to authorities.
Kevin James, 29, was charged after police responded to a 911 call and discovered 3-year-old Denim Brown “unconscious and unresponsive” in a restroom at an apartment building at 770 New York Ave. in East Flatbush at 9:45 a.m.
Denim was left with James’ 66-year-old stepfather at a different apartment by the boy’s mother, Shamanda Brown, according to police sources.
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According to the NYPD, EMS workers took the child to NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County Hospital. But he did not make it. James is charged with murder, assault, and endangering a child for allegedly killing the young kid.
Although the municipal medical examiner has yet to identify the cause of death, police sources informed The Post that the kid sustained severe head injuries. By Tuesday morning, bereaved friends and neighbors had assembled an impromptu memorial in the building’s lobby, complete with photos, candles, blue balloons, a football, and teddy bears.
“I used to see him walking and talking to his mom,” one woman recounted, holding her one-week-old baby girl in her arms. “So young. It’s unsettling to know that we all reside in the same building. “I feel it, you know?”
A 16-year-old boy whose family knew both the suspect’s and the victim’s families described the death and charges as inexplicable.
“It’s a shock for all of us because this building is like one big family,” youngster Sam Philippe told The Post. “We didn’t only lose one person, but it’s like to me I lost two.”
Philippe further stated that he did not believe James was capable of what he had been accused of.
“I looked up to him personally,” he told me. “He is a nice young man who has a lot going on. He was generating songs for his brand.” A man and woman who knew the victim’s family well told The Post that the family is from Jamaica, and Brown frequently left her little son with a neighbor or her lover.
According to the duo, the mother lives with her stepfather, younger sister, and brother. Her mother, Denim’s grandmother, died in childbirth roughly six years ago, they said.
The neighbor who frequently watched the youngster lived with his girlfriend and three of her sons, according to the pair. And James, the second youngest kid, was known for little more than sitting on the steps and smoking marijuana.
“I know all of them,” the man said. “Man, this is tough. I constantly see [Denim] with his mother, coming and departing, because she spent so much time with him.
“He was a very active kid,” the man explained. “It’s very distressing because Denim and James knew each other. The kid remained over there all the time. “The kid is gone, man. Such a sweet little kid.”
The wife agreed, describing Denim as a “good boy.” “It’s a sad story … only God knows why,” she remarked, adding that she had just seen Brown recently.
“When she got off the elevator, my chest swelled up with happiness and sadness at the same time,” the woman told The Post. “Her mother died leaving a small baby, and now she has a kid and is attending nursing school — and her mother is not present to witness it.
“Next day, I came downstairs, and I heard this,” she remarked, shaking her head.
Another woman, who only went by San, stated that he saw little Denim with his caregiver at Ralph Henry Playground hours before his death.
“I saw him alive that evening while we were at the park. He was running around with my son. “They were playing with my son’s scooter,” San told The Post.
“He held a basketball. I knotted his laces since he was going to trip. After a few hours of playing together, this child was killed. Every time I look at the park, I remember a child running around the trees. I saw him still at the park.”
“Even though this was not my child, this could’ve been my child,” she said. “I am just wondering why, why?”
Police stated the inquiry into Denim’s death is still ongoing.
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