The mother of a 5-year-old boy who died last year in what Suffolk police Friday called “a shocking case of abuse” is facing a murder charge along with her boyfriend.
Officers found victim King Owusu at a Brentwood apartment after a 911 call on April 1, 2021, Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said in a news conference about the case.
First responders rushed the unresponsive child from the Leroy Avenue location to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, but his life couldn’t be saved, according to authorities.
An autopsy showed King had suffered “several blunt trauma injuries throughout his body,” Harrison said.
The police commissioner spoke a day after King’s mother, Valerie Owusu, 26, and her boyfriend, Emmanuel Addae, 27, both of Orange, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges.
An indictment accuses them of acting in concert with each other.
“This poor kid suffered. This was a terrible, terrible case. This was a shocking case of abuse is all I can say about this,” Suffolk homicide squad commander Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer said Friday.
A lawyer for King’s mother said Friday that she is a hard-working consignment store employee who has lived in Queens most of her life.
“My client has maintained she had no involvement in this incident whatsoever. … I’m confident that she’ll be exonerated,” Central Islip attorney Michael J. Brown told Newsday.
Both defendants now are jailed without bail and neither has a criminal record, according to authorities.
Addae’s Manhattan attorney, Robert P. Kelly, said Friday that his client, an Uber driver, “denies any involvement in the beating of King.”
The defendants have a daughter together who is almost 2 years old, according to Brown.
Police said the child, King’s half-sister, has been in the supervision of Suffolk child protective services since the 5-year-old’s death.
Authorities arrested the couple after they came to Family Court for a hearing, according to police. They said King’s sibling wasn’t injured but they believe the child was present at the time of the alleged violence.
Police said the investigation, in which they teamed with Suffolk prosecutors, took a year because of “jurisdictional issues.”
Initially there was information the incident “might have occurred in Ghana” — where Addae is from and where “they had traveled,” Beyrer said.
Addae’s lawyer said Friday that prosecutors disclosed a statement to the defense that King’s mother allegedly made to authorities that said “the beating was at the hands of the natural father” while out of the country.
But Beyrer said the law enforcement probe showed the fatal encounter occurred in New York state and King died in Suffolk County. The location where police found King was the home of Addae’s parents, who called 911, he said.
The defendants had been in living in LeFrak City in Queens at the time, according to authorities.
Police wouldn’t comment on whether King appeared to be a victim of habitual abuse, or say how they believe he suffered his injuries.
With John Valenti and Jean-Paul Salamanca
By Bridget Murphy
[email protected]
Bridget Murphy is a Newsday criminal justice reporter.
