NEW YORK — The 4-year-old boy found unconscious covered in bruises and burns in a Midtown high-rise apartment bathtub was beaten for weeks before his death by a caretaker who said she was trying to discipline him while his father was in jail, police sources said.
"I was giving him corporal punishment," Kryzie King, 27, who also goes by the name Janaie Jones, allegedly admitted to police while being questioned about the death of Myls Dobson. "I was trying to control him."
Myls was covered in cigarette burn marks all over his body and had lacerations on his arms, legs and genitals when he was found inside King's apartment at The Ritz Plaza at 235 West 48th St. just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday.
Police charged King with assault and reckless endangerment after more than a day of interrogation.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton described the child's wounds as "horrific" at a press conference on Thursday.
"The briefing I had this morning provided, in addition to some very horrific pictures, some detail based on the investigation of what that young boy had been forced to deal with for several days. I won't go into more specifics than that," Bratton said at a police promotion ceremony in Queens, adding the child endured "horrific injuries over a period of days."
"This is tragic," he said.
King told police Wednesday that she left Myls alone in the bathroom and heard a "thud," police said. When she went inside, she claimed she saw the boy lying unconscious in a bathtub, police said.
He was taken to Roosevelt Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
But, under questioning at the Midtown North Precinct stationhouse, King admitted that she had carried out a series of increasingly-brutal abuses in an effort to control the boy's behavior.
She said she beat him with belts and hangers, and burned him, starting on Dec. 28. She also locked him inside the bathroom alone for long periods of time, police sources said.
“This is as bad as it gets. She tortured him over a period of days," a source said. "The body was riddled with scars and marks, was beaten with hangers and belts. The beatings just grew."
King took in the boy on Dec. 18, a day before his father, Okee Wade, 37, was arrested by the Federal Task Force, which picked him up at the Marcy Houses on a warrant for skipping a court appearance in New Jersey on fraud charges, according to relatives and court records.
Sources said King admitted that she rarely took the little boy out of the house and beat him when he asked to go to McDonald's.
The Administration for Childrens Services said Wednesday that it was investigating the case. On Thursday, ACS officials referred calls to the NYPD.
Reporting was contributed by Gustavo Solis, Katie Honan, Trevor Kapp, Ben Fractenberg, Janon Fisher and James Fanelli.
