A 9-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl have been charged with attempted murd£r and r@pe in connection with an attack on a 5-year-old girl in Cleveland, authorities in Ohio said.
Prosecutors charged the two children with attempted murd£r, r@pe, felonious assault, kidnapping and strangulation after the attack which took place in September, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. Local outlets reported that they were charged in juvenile court.
The prosecutor’s office in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced the charges on Wednesday, Oct. 15, saying it was still receiving information and obtaining evidence.
Lexi Bauer, a spokeswoman for the office, said that the charges were filed in juvenile court on Wednesday and the two children who have been accused would be arraigned at a later date.
In Ohio, a juvenile suspect must be 14 or older for the case to be eligible to be transferred to adult court, Ms. Bauer said.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office added that it is not releasing any more information at this time due to the “sensitive nature of this case.”
The 5-year-old girl’s mother told WOIO that her daughter was beaten, assaulted and “scalped” on Sept. 13 in a field near East 148th Street and St. Clair Avenue. She reportedly said her daughter was “unrecognizable” after the attack.
Antavia Kennibrew, the victim’s mother, said she dropped her daughter off Sept. 13 at a family member’s home in Cleveland. Somehow, the 5-year-old walked out the front door and was allegedly badly beaten by a group of kids outside.
When Kennibrew found out, she rushed over and saw EMS treating her daughter several blocks over.
“What I saw was unbelievable,” she said.
“I literally saw the worst thing ever,” the mom told WOIO.
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“My daughter was not my daughter. Her hair was scalped from her head. She had bruises and blood all over her body. Her eyes were filled with blood. Her lips and mouth were filled with blood. Her nails had debris and dirt stuck in them.”
The Cleveland Division of Police is investigating. In a post on Facebook from Oct. 7, the department said it could not release more information “due to the sensitive nature of this case,” adding that investigators do not want to “jeopardize the integrity of the investigation and compromise the privacy and constitutional rights of those involved.”
Watch the mother speak in the video below.
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