Cops: Girl, 11, Killed Infant, Showed No Remorse

Ohio girl charged with murder
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 10, 2015 12:48 PM CST
Cops: Girl, 11, Killed Infant, Showed No Remorse
Wickliffe Police Chief Randy Ice speaks, Monday, Feb. 9, 2015 in Wickliffe, Ohio. An 11-year-old girl has been charged with murder in the beating of a 2-month-old.   (AP Photo/Northeast Ohio Media Group, Ryllie Danylko)

An 11-year-old girl from a Cleveland suburb stands charged with the chilling murder of a 2-month-old girl her mother was babysitting, and authorities say the child showed no remorse. "I'm not sure she appreciated the gravity of what she did," says the police chief in Wickliffe, Ohio, per the AP. The 11-year-old's mother, 39—a friend of the mom of 2-month-old Zuri Whitehead, who was watching the infant to give her mom a break—fell asleep on a basement couch with both girls around 3am Friday, reports the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. In the hour the mother was asleep, the girl allegedly took Zuri upstairs and beat her. She returned and woke her mother to tell her something was wrong with the baby, who was bleeding with her head badly swollen. The mother immediately called 911, but Zuri died of massive brain injuries and internal bleeding at a Cleveland trauma center.

The 11-year-old, who is not being named, was charged with murder yesterday; a juvenile court judge entered a not guilty plea and ordered a competency hearing. The child is too young to be charged as an adult. The crime scene was so traumatic that the police chief is bringing in counselors for responding officers. "I've been a policeman for 30 years and I've never come across something like this," he says. "We're trying to figure out what could possibly motivate someone to do something like this." (More murder stories.)

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