The boyfriend of the mother of a 3-year-old boy abandoned dead at a Brooklyn hospital has been charged with slapping the toddler multiple times two weeks before he died, police said Wednesday.
Robert White, 38, is facing charges of assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child for the Feb. 22 incident at an apartment in Brooklyn’s Spring Creek Towers in Starrett City, cops said.
He has not been charged in connection with the child’s death, cops said. An initial autopsy was inconclusive and the city Medical Examiner is conducting further tests to determine how little Kyng Royal Foster.
White allegedly slapped Kyng more than 10 times with an open hand in front of family members, police said. Kyng suffered redness and bruises to his face.
The complaint against White wasn’t filed the day of the incident but on Monday, a day after Kyng was dumped dead at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in East Flatbush, cops said.
White’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending Wednesday. He has three prior arrests dating back to 2018, including for robbery and assault, police sources said.
Cops have been seeking to question White and Kyng’s mother about the child’s death. Police believe the couple brought Kyng to the hospital just before 11:25 a.m. Sunday then left without talking to medical staff.
The couple fled in a four-door sedan with Pennsylvania license plates that don’t match the vehicle, according to police sources.
Doctors pronounced Kyng dead shortly after he arrived. The boy was in rigor mortis, indicating he had been dead for at least a couple of hours, police sources said.
He had extensive bruising on his body, which could be linked to lividity, a postmortem condition in which blood pools in the lower parts of the body, causing a purplish discoloration of the skin, the sources added.
It was unknown Wednesday if the blows struck by White two weeks earlier played any role in the child’s death, police said. Kyng’s death has not been deemed criminal as police await the results of the autopsy.
SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
White was nabbed by cops Tuesday and brought to the 67th Precinct stationhouse, where they charged him for the Feb. 22 incident.
It was not immediately clear if Kyng’s mother has been found yet by police and questioned about her child’s death.
Her loved ones have been calling on her to come forward and tell police everything she knows about what happened.
“Idk wtf is going through your head right now but this not you,” wrote Tiqua Blockwood, who identified herself in a Facebook post as little Kyng’s godmother. “Aint no f—ing wayyyyyy my godson didnt deserve that I just got this feeling its more to this.”
“If you’re seeing this baby, turn yourself in,” Sabrina Johnson, who also identified herself as the boy’s godmother, told PIX11 outside the hospital Monday. “It’s easier for you to turn yourself in and explain yourself, versus them finding you. It’s a sad situation that the life of a 3-year-old is gone. And we’re going to miss him.”