2-year-old boy with broken ribs found in cage at his mom’s home, New York cops say

An injured 2-year-old boy was found locked in a makeshift cage at his mother’s home as police arrived to arrest her in connection with a separate incident, authorities announced on May 16.

The child was located inside a bedroom, caged in a playpen that was “covered by a piece of a crib” in Buffalo on Feb. 8, according to a New York State Police news release.

The crib was fastened to a playpen to prevent the boy, whose ribs were broken, from standing or escaping, police said.

His mother, a 24-year-old Buffalo resident, is facing a charge of child endangerment, according to police. McClatchy News is not identifying the woman to protect the identity of her child.

Her attorney, Susan Marie Karalus, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 16.

Before the boy was discovered, police headed to the 24-year-old’s home to execute an arrest warrant “for a possession of a forged instrument charge,” Trooper James O’Callaghan told McClatchy News on May 16.

When officers found the boy, he was covered in feces and “soaked in urine,” police said in the release.

The cage and the walls of the nearby bedroom were also covered in feces, according to police.

The boy was taken to Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, where medical evaluations revealed he had “two fractured ribs in the healing stage,” police said.

Authorities believe the boy’s injuries happened up to two weeks earlier.

The woman told investigators her son “fell down the stairs sometime late December 2023, early January 2024” and that he “was crying as a result,” police said.

She never sought medical attention for him, according to police.

Karalus told the New York Post that the woman is “attempting to get a fair resolution” in court.

Her next court appearance is scheduled for June 13, records show.

This story was originally published May 16, 2024 at 11:57 AM with the headline "2-year-old boy with broken ribs found in cage at his mom’s home, New York cops say."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.