FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Brownsville Father Convicted of Shaking 7-Week Old Daughter
Causing Child’s Death
Victim Suffered Severe Head Trauma
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a Brownsville man has been convicted of manslaughter for violently shaking and throwing his infant daughter causing her to suffer brain swelling, bleeding on the brain and in both eyes.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This defendant was a father responsible for the care and protection of his young daughter, but instead chose to shake her to death in order to stop the child’s crying. He has now been held accountable for this tragic and avoidable death.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Eryk Ford, 24, of Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was convicted today of second-degree manslaughter following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice. The defendant faces up to 15 years in prison when sentenced on October 4, 2016.
The District Attorney said that, according to the defendant’s own admissions, on January 15, 2012 at approximately 5:50 a.m., Aniyah Ford, 7-weeks old, was crying in the living room of the defendant’s apartment when the defendant picked up the child and violently shook her. The defendant, the victim’s father, then threw the child into her car seat that was on the floor nearby. The child’s body went limp and she eventually stopped breathing, according to the investigation.
The defendant waited approximately ten minutes before checking on the child and another 40 minutes before calling 911. The victim suffered from brain swelling, subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhaging and retinal hemorrhaging, according to the New York City Medical Examiner. She died on February 8, 2012.
The case was prosecuted by First Deputy Bureau Chief Frank DeGaetano and Senior Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Ashwal of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Bureau Chief.
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