A one-month-old Staten Island baby died of starvation over the summer — and the months-old case has been ruled a homicide, authorities said this week.
The infant, identified as Joseph Haben Jr. of Main Street near Craig Avenue in Tottenville, died of “complications of severe malnutrition,” the city medical examiner’s office said Wednesday.
NYPD police responded to the South Campus of Staten Island University Hospital around 7 a.m. on July 20, where hospital staff informed them that the child was unconscious and unresponsive, police said.
He died in the hospital.
Police have now launched a murder investigation, although no arrests had been made as of Wednesday, officials said.
It was also not immediately clear whether the child’s parents were being questioned.
In a similar case last month, parents Laron Modlin, 25, and Nitavia Ragsdale, 26, both of Harlem, were arrested. His 4-year-old son Jahmik Modlin dies of hungerOfficials said.
ragsdale Pleaded not guilty to murder in the second degree At his arraignment Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
(Tags to translate)Metro(T)US News(T)Deaths(T)New York(T)New York City(T)Staten Island
