Who was Ayden Wolfe? NYC boy, 10, dies of broken ribs, lacerated spleen, liver and kidneys after stepdad's abuse
HARLEM, NYC: A 34-year-old man is charged with abusing his girlfriend’s 10-year-old son until he died of horrific injuries. The man has a history of disturbing domestic violence arrests including a charge that he choked the mother of his own children.
Ryan Cato is now awaiting arraignment on murder charges in Manhattan Criminal Court for allegedly abusing his girlfriend’s son to death. The boy, Ayden Wolfe, who lost his life after experiencing the traumatic abuse had fatal injuries including a lacerated spleen, a lacerated liver, a lacerated kidney, rib fractures on both sides and bruising between his toes, sources said. Cato was charged with assault, menacing and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
RELATED ARTICLES
The police department responded to a 911 call from the accused killer on March 6, 2021, afternoon and found Wolfe barely alive when they got to the family’s fourth-floor apartment in the Saint Nicholas Houses. Ayden was unconscious and covered with water from a failed attempt to wake him, sources said. The paramedics took him from his home on W. 131st St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3.20 pm.
The boy's injuries included an "extensive bruising to his face, the extremities and all over the body," Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said. "Some injuries were old, but others were recent," Harrison explained. It was also found that a complaint was filed against the boy's mother in 2010 soon after he was born, involving the city's child welfare agency and concerned alleged child neglect. It was also found that Cato has a history of domestic violence arrests, including charges he choked the mother of his own children in front of their two children inside their apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. On that occasion, Cato was charged with assault, menacing and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Cato allegedly hit the children's mother in the face many times before putting his hands around her neck and applying pressure. In February, Cato was also charged with assaulting a school bus driver in Brooklyn.
According to a report by The New York Times, Jennifer A, who claimed to be a cousin of Ayden said the little boy was "super smart, super intelligent", and wanted to become a professional YouTube gamer. "He was very technologically savvy, well-mannered." Jennifer said Ayden was his mother's only child and that she loved him: "They were always together. She's very protective over him — she was a good mom. I don't understand what went wrong. I've never seen a bruise, fracture, anything on him.