Frustrated babysitter tells mother toddler has ‘gotta go’ before breaking ribs and lacerating liver, leading to boy’s death: Cops

Inset: Zai-Twond Perry (Newport News Police). Background: Virginia home where Perry allegedly murdered a 1-year-old boy he was babysitting (Google Maps).

A 20-month-old died at the hands of his babysitter, who became so frustrated that he texted the toddler’s mother to say the boy “gotta go” before breaking his ribs and lacerating his liver, Virginia cops allege.

The Newport News Police Department said in a press release its officers responded around 7:46 a.m. April 5 to a home on Cedar Avenue for a report of an unresponsive child. Paramedics arrived and pronounced the boy dead on scene. An autopsy determined the boy, who has not been publicly identified, suffered “internal trauma” leading to his death. After a “thorough investigation,” cops on Friday arrested 25-year-old Zai-Twond Perry on charges of second-degree murder and felony child abuse.

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Local NBC affiliate WAVY obtained an arrest affidavit that said the boy’s mother enlisted Perry, a family friend, to babysit her son. In an interview with detectives, Perry allegedly told detectives he found the boy playing in his own feces, the station reported. He was giving the boy a bath when he allegedly squeezed the boy’s ribs in frustration. The autopsy noted the boy bruising on the torso and broken ribs.

The child also suffered a three-inch laceration on the liver, which caused internal bleeding along with bleeding on the brain that possibly came from Perry shaking him, the affidavit reportedly said. Throughout the day, Perry allegedly texted the boy’s mother that the toddler “gotta go.”