BROOKLYN — The Coney Island father accused of fatally beating his 16-month-old daughter on Father’s Day was indicted on second-degree murder charges Monday.
Prosecutors say that Shaquan Taylor, 19, attacked his daughter, Nylah Lewis, while she was staying with him at his mother’s place on W. 32nd St. on June 18. According to investigators, Nylah suffered a fractured skull and brain swelling and died several days after the beating.
In a written statement he made after being taken into custody, Taylor admitted to attacking the child's mother after she tried to help the toddler. But in his statement, which was made public by the Brooklyn DA's office on Monday, Taylor did not say how his daughter suffered fatal injuries.
Taylor claimed he was in the shower when he heard a “loud bang” followed by Nylah's cries.
He said he quickly got out of the bathroom and saw his daughter lying on her stomach crying.
Taylor picked up his daughter and placed her in his mother’s room, according to his statement, while he put on clothes.
But when he returned to check on Nylah she was “coughing and throwing up out her [nose],” the father wrote.
“Now I’m freaking out, I’m scared because I never seen that before so I’m trying to talk to her and [wipe] her [nose],” Taylor claimed.
He then said he called her mother, who had an order of protection against Taylor, but became enraged when she arrived and said she was taking Nylah to the hospital.
Shaquan Taylor Confession by DNAinfoNewYork on Scribd
By his account, Taylor chased after her and started to punch his ex until she fell to the ground. He then said he grabbed his daughter, at which point his ex started to run away again. He then started "sprinting with my daughter in my arms."
Taylor finally handed Nylah to a friend and again attacked her mother after she tried to get help from another group of people, he wrote.
Taylor claims he ran back upstairs and when he returned, two officers had arrived and arrested him.
Nylah was placed on life support in Maimonides Medical Center and succumbed to her injures on June 23.
Her mother suffered cuts and swelling to her eye.
“This father was supposed to protect his innocent baby daughter but instead he allegedly violently and senselessly took her life and then assaulted her mother when she tried to come to her rescue,” acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said in a statement Monday. “I intend to hold him fully accountable for this unspeakable crime.”
Taylor was held without bail after being arraigned on the indictment in Brooklyn Supreme Court Monday.
He is due back on July 27 and is facing 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge.
His lawyer, Jonathan Fink, declined to comment.
