THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) — The grandmother of a 2-year-old Bronx boy feared dead said she begged her son to bring the boy back and warned police he took the child last month.
“My son kidnapped my grandchild out my house,” Sabrina Williams said she told police in an interview with NewsNation affiliate WPIX on Tuesday.
Williams said she was having a gathering for Mother’s Day in her Bronx home on May 10, and her son, 20, left with his young son, Montrell Williams. Sources said the father left with Montrell after a fight with the grandmother.
She said she tried texting him, begging him to bring the baby back. But Williams said she went to the police on May 11, and they told her it was legal because he was the child’s father.
Sources said detectives believe the boy was not alive when the grandmother went to police to file a missing person’s report on May 11 because the dad, Arius Williams, turned up at a family member’s home that day without Montrell.
The father allegedly told the boy’s 17-year-old mother that he threw Montrell into the Bronx River, sources said. The teen had not seen her son since May 10.
This past weekend, the grandmother said her son told her the boy was fine.
“He good. He good. Don’t worry about it,” he told her.
Police are not certain the child is in the Bronx River. They believe the boy is dead but don’t know how he died yet, sources told WPIX. Police were searching the river on Monday and Tuesday based on what the mom told them.
After refusing to speak with detectives, the father was taken to family court Monday in the Bronx for custodial interference. A judge remanded him to Rikers Island.
“We’re still investigating all actions. The actions of the dad, the actions of the officers who responded,” Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday. “Right now, our goal is to try to find the child.”
