Michigan woman stabs 3-year-old son to death, casually dumps battered and tortured body in backroom
INKSTER, MICHIGAN: A woman was charged with the murder of her 3-year-old son after the authorities discovered the battered and tortured body of the victim in a backroom of her empty Michigan home.
Atiya Nina Muhammed, 26, was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, child abuse, and torture after Zion Reid's body was discovered with multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma injuries, according to Wayne County District Court, obtained by MLive.
The police visited the property after worried relatives of the victim called in to report that they had been trying to reach Muhammed for quite some time but they got no response back. When the cops entered her house, Muhammed was not at home. She was found by the police later in the day.
The accused's sister, Shadiya, who reportedly was at the scene when little Zion's body was discovered, said that she had no idea that her sister was capable of doing what she did. "There's nothing that I can say that would explain away what she did. I don't want people to think she was this evil person, but there's no excuse for what she did," she said, the Sun reported.
Muhammed's mother, Regina Massey, said the suspect suffered from mental health issues. The victim's father, Robert Reid, also said he had tried to gain custody of the child in the past. "My first-born is gone," he said of the devastating loss.
Muhammed was arraigned on Sunday, May 10.
The lockdown enforced across the country to slow the spread of the outbreak has resulted in experts expressing their worry that conditions have worsened for victims of child abuse trapped at home with their parents. It was an issue addressed by Angelina Jolie, who shared her concern in an op-ed about how the young, in particular, are vulnerable to some of the secondary impacts of the pandemic on society.
"Of the many ways that the pandemic is making us rethink our humanity, none is more important, or urgent, than the overall protection of children," she wrote. "They may not be as susceptible to the virus as other groups, but they are especially vulnerable to so many of the secondary impacts of the pandemic on society."
She said that the economic fallout accompanying the outbreak, which has resulted in the losses of thousands of jobs, has increased the stress, pressure, and uncertainty for families which, in turn, increases the risk for domestic violence.
"In America, an estimated 1 in 15 children is exposed to intimate partner violence each year — 90% of them as eyewitnesses to the violence. An average of 137 women across the world are killed by a partner or family member every day. We will never know in how many of these cases there is a child in the next room — or in the room itself," she explained.
She said that the economic fallout accompanying the outbreak, which has resulted in the losses of thousands of jobs, has increased the stress, pressure, and uncertainty for families which, in turn, increases the risk for domestic violence.