Ella Vitalis, a one-year-old in Brooklyn, died of a blunt force injury just days after a Brooklyn judge ruled she should be returned to her parents, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Administration for Children’s Services and requested she be removed from her parent’s custody after a “substantiated” finding of abuse. ACS requested that Ella and her 2-year-old brother Liam be put in foster care and the parent’s only be allowed supervised visits. (RELATED: Police Say Man Shot Girlfriend For Going To A Party, After Telling Her ‘There Would Be Trouble’ If She Attended)
Ella had been involved in a case of domestic violence as a three-week-old, when police responded to a violent dispute between the two parents. Ella broke both her ankles and suffered a small brain hemorrhage in August 2022. A month later, Ella was hospitalized for a “tongue laceration” and she couldn’t eat for six days, according to documents reviewed by the outlet.
A judge in Brooklyn overruled city concerns that a one-year-old, Ella Vitalis, was being abused and allowed her to return to her parents’ care the day before she was fatally injured in September, according to court papers obtained by The New York Times.https://t.co/bOi4ms9918
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 3, 2023
While in foster care, Ella’s grandmother left her alone with her father and returned to find her with “a moderate amount of blood in her mouth” which a doctor said could only have resulted from a sharp object.
On September 15 of this year, just days after being returned to her parents, Ella was brought to the hospital with cuts on her forehead, a swollen eyelid, bite marks and a broken jaw. Ella’s mother said her injuries were due to her drinking too much milk. The child died five days later from a brain bleed, according to the outlet.
Both the ACS and the judge on the case told the Times that they could not comment on the investigation.