In recent years fostercare facilities have invoked concern over their overt means of accumulating wealth by sometimes snatching children away from their parents in the pretense that the child was undergoing abuse, especially inflicted on immigrants who hold negligible knowledge of the same, time and again, their intuition and research proves to be valuable in warning courts of an abused child being neglected by the government. And sometimes, a snap judgment of a court can lead to dire consequences that only end in decision regret.
Ella Vitalis, an alleged victim of child abuse was reportedly admitted to the hospital due to brute force inflicted on her head on 15th September. According to the documents obtained by New York Times, PEOPLE reported the death of the 1-year-old infant in N.Y., Brooklyn, mere days after Judge Erik S. Pitchal in Kings County Court declared that she and her brother Liam would be returned to their parent’s home, whom city officials reported were abusers.
PEOPLE reported that “Ella Vitalis was hospitalized with a blunt-force injury to her head on Sept. 15. The infant allegedly also had other injuries that included a swollen eyelid, bruising and cuts on her forehead, and “what appeared to be” a broken jaw, and bite marks, per the court papers obtained by the Times.”
Lafayette Browne, 29, Ella’s mother allegedly informed the authorities upon interrogation that the infant choked on milk while her father Johnson Vitalis, 28 was feeding her, in an attempt to justify her gruesome injuries. Via Times, People reported that after being hospitalized due to a brain bleed from the incident, Ella was placed on life support, and succumbed to her injuries on 20th September.
“The safety and well-being of New York City’s children is our top priority,” a spokesperson from the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) shared with PEOPLE in a statement Tuesday evening. “We are investigating this tragedy with the NYPD.”
After the Judge’s decision to return the two children from their foster home to their parents’, PEOPLE reported via credible reports that Browne and Vitalis failed to bring their children to at least five follow-up appointments building the suspicion radar allegedly did not allow either child to be evaluated for early care intervention.
PEOPLE reports via Times that court documents state that the first abuse on Ella was reported when she was three weeks old. At the time, the children’s parents are said to have gotten into an argument, causing Ella to sustain a fractured skull, a small brain hemorrhage, and two broken ankles. During the incident, Browne allegedly pushed Vitalis into a wall while he carried Liam in his arms. Liam did not sustain any injuries.
Another abusive incident foreshadowed Ella’s health in September 2022, as reported by PEOPLE via Times, where Ella was allegedly found “with a moderate amount of blood in her mouth” after being hospitalized with a tongue laceration. The discovery was made after she was left alone with her father, and a doctor “determined a sharp object must have been used to cause that level of harm.”
An attempt to squeeze an interview and locate Pitchal was in vain by PEOPLE, and since then no reports have surfaced regarding the aftermath of the infant’s Browne and Vitalis, we soon hope for a redressal and holding them accountable for the death of their infant child.
Call Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org if you suspect any kind of child abuse.