Alabama girl, 9, charged in brother’s death after alleged beating
A 9-year-old Alabama girl has been charged in the death of her 4-year-old brother after she allegedly used a broomstick to viciously beat him, authorities said.
Police in Mobile said the beaten boy — who has not been identified — was pronounced dead at the house where officers had been called to a “medical emergency” last Thursday morning.
His aunt and legal guardian, Yolanda Coale, told cops that she woke to the sound of children screaming — and saw the girl hitting her brother with a broomstick.
Coale, 53, was arrested for aggravated child abuse the next day.
Meanwhile, the 9-year-old girl was charged with assault, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The complaint says she “did willfully torture, willfully abuse and cruelly beat” her brother, according to WPMI.
The documents also claim there were past injuries and signs that indicate long-term abuse on the young boy’s body.
An autopsy has yet to determine the cause of death, and no one has been charged with killing him.
Coale did not respond to questions when she was transferred to a local jail, where she was being held on $150,000 bail, WPMI reported. She did not have an attorney who could speak on her behalf, court documents showed.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the girl or where she was, and police and the DA’s office did not immediately respond to requests for more information.
With Post wires
