The August death of an 11-month-old Bronx girl was ruled a homicide after investigators determined she drowned in a bathtub, authorities and sources said Friday.
Little Jazeli Mirabal was unconscious and unresponsive when the NYPD responded to a 911 call around 7:40 p.m. Aug. 14 at her family’s apartment on West Farms Road near Boone Avenue in Crotona Park East, cops said.
She was taken to Lincoln Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Examiner ruled Jazeli’s death a homicide Friday – with law enforcement sources adding that she was found in a bathtub.
Both of Jazeli’s parents had been investigated by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, sources said at the time.
Neighbors said in August that the baby was “purple” and lying on the floor just inside the front door of the apartment when her mother ran over looking for help.
“I heard screaming. I was the first one out. She was knocking on the door,” one neighbor recalled. “She was calling for help. She was saying, ‘Help, my baby is dying.’”
Another neighbor on the same floor of the building said little Jazeli lived with her mother and two older sisters, but that her dad did not reside there and was not home when she died.
The child’s mom had a volatile relationship with her boyfriend, who stopped visiting after one of their frequent fights got physical last year, neighbors added.
Neither parent faced charges in connection to Jazeli’s death by Friday.
Jazeli marks the fourth infant in the city whose death was ruled a homicide this month.
Authorities determined 4-month-old Ariel Gonzalez died of cocaine intoxication after he was found lifeless inside his Eagle Avenue home in Mott Haven Aug. 10, officials said.
And 1-month-old Staten Island boy Joseph Heben Jr., who died on July 20, was found to have starved to death, officials said last week.
Joseph, of Tottenville – died from “complications of severe malnourishment,” the city Medical Examiner’s Office ruled.
No arrests have been made in either of those cases.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
