A Bronx mom was charged with murder in the brutal beating death of her 6-year-old daughter – who neighbors say had begged for her life before her shocking end, cops said.
Lynija Eason-Kumar, 23, was arrested Thursday in connection to the early-morning May 26, 2023 slaying of little Jalayah Eason inside the family’s squalid apartment at NYCHA’s Forest Houses, according to authorities.
The mother had initially told cops she found the girl cold and not breathing inside a closet in their 12th-floor unit on East 165th Street, sources said at the time.
Eason-Kumar claimed she tried to administer CPR, but Jalayah would not wake up, cops said.
EMS arrived 15 minutes later and rushed the girl — who had obvious bruising and trauma on her wrists and torso — to Lincoln Medical Center, but she couldn’t be saved.
Jalayah died of asphyxia and blunt force injuries, police confirmed Thursday.
Upstairs neighbor Dennis Rivera previously told The Post that he heard the 6-year-old girl “screaming for her dear life” during the early-morning beating.
“At 3:42 in the morning that girl was screaming,” Rivera said.
“She was screaming for dear life . . . She was screaming like hell.”
“She kept saying ‘stop, stop, stop.’ … You could hear the thumps, bro.”
Police sources said at the time that there had been several calls for domestic violence at the family’s address.
Eason was previously arrested on charges that she’d hurt her other two children, an 8-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl .
The two kids had cuts, scars and rashes when police visited the home May 26, according to a criminal complaint related to that case.
The 8-year old had “countless small lacerations in various stages of healing on his back, scalp, arms and legs,” Hernandez wrote.
The boy allegedly also had a cut on his forehead and a deep, partially-healed gash on his scalp.
The girl had a “long, discolored scar” on her waist and a “widespread discolored rash to her inner thighs and buttocks,” Hernandez wrote.
The complaint also included stomach-churning details on the filthy, insect-infested home.
That case remains open in Bronx Criminal Court.
Her arraignment in connection with the new charges, which also include manslaughter counts, was pending Thursday.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
