11-month-old boy dies amid child-abuse investigation in Detroit

Family says reason for child's injuries is unknown

DETROIT – An 11-month-old boy died Friday as Detroit police investigate a child-abuse case on the city's west side.

Police said the child was taken to a hospital around 9 p.m. Wednesday after struggling to breathe at a home on Grandmont Avenue.

Hospital officials said the child had severe internal injuries and a fractured skull.

The boy's grandmother said his name is Kass, and he died at 9:44 a.m. Friday. She said nobody who was with Kass on Wednesday knows how he got his injuries.

Officials said the boy was in critical condition for a day and a half before succumbing to his injuries at Children's Hospital. His injuries were described as severe on the inside and outside.

Doctors don't believe the injuries were an accident.

"That's what the hospital said, but when we were here, he was perfectly fine," grandmother Demeka Griffin said.

Kass was being watched by his aunt and uncle while his mother was at work.

Griffin was also at the home, but she said she was asleep when the injuries happened.

"When he was here, he was crawling, playing, eating, everything," Griffin said.

She said he was fine right she went to sleep. Her daughter and the rest of the family are struggling, but nobody knows how Kass got hurt so badly, Griffin said.

"Don't nobody plan for no baby to pass away, so it's hard," Griffin said.

Police said child-abuse officials are still investigating.


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