By Ben Fractenberg and Nicole Bode
DNAinfo Senior Editor
MANHATTAN — Police have arrested a Kips Bay man on charges he killed his 6-month-old nephew inside his apartment.
Luis Melendez, 33, was charged with murder, reckless assault of a child, and endangering the welfare of a child after his nephew, Alex-Jose Fernandez, was found limp and unconscious around 3 p.m. Tuesday inside the family's 17th-floor apartment on Second Ave near 26th Street, police said.
The baby was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, police said.
A source said they believed it may have been a case of shaken baby syndrome, pending an official cause of death from the Medical Examiner's office.
A spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's office said that initial autopsy results were inconclusive, and that further tissue testing will be done to determine the cause of death.
