TYREKE EVANS - 4 yo - Chattanooga/ Erlanger TN

Chattanooga police believe a 4-year-old boy has died from child abuse.

Police say a 3-year-old and 4-year-old were brought to a local
emergency room. The 4-year-old was pronounced dead upon arrival, and the
3-year-old is in ICU. Police say preliminary findings point to child
abuse, but they do not know the 4-year-old's exact cause of death.

Police are currently interviewing the mother of the children and her boyfriend.

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/year-1007458-old-police.html

Chattanooga Police are investigating a deadly case of abuse, involving two little boys.
Police Sergeant Jerri Weary tells Channel 3, two boys, ages 3 and 4, were taken to Erlanger Monday.

Weary says the four-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival, and the other child was taken to ICU.

She says preliminary findings show the both children suffered abuse, but says an exact cause of death is unknown.

Police are currently interviewing boys' mother and her boyfriend.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16357845/police-investigating-deadly-child-abuse-case

Only a wall separates Antonia Moten's apartment from Tyreke and Donamiche Brewer's in Harriet Tubman Homes.
The porch they share now bears a memorial to the little boy lost, and the little brother who barely survives.

"All that screaming and hollering and stuff I
was hearing over there," she says, "I just wish there was a way that I
could have did something because those are innocent children!"

She shares such grief and guilt with their grandmother, Andrea Jones.

"My daughter's no murderer," Jones tells
Eyewitness News off-camera, "she never could have hurt her little boys,
but she may have been too scared to stop him (Kenneth Dewayne Coleman)."


Tyreke and Donamiche Brewer

Coleman is the boyfriend of Tyreke and
Donamiche's mother, Patricia Brewer. Coleman and Brewer are charged with
the murder of Tyreke, 4, the attempted murder of Donamiche, 3, and two
counts of aggravated child abuse after police say the couple brought the
little boys to Children's Hospital at Erlanger Monday afternoon.

Tyreke already was dead when doctors examined his body, police say.

"My daughter would not have done anything like this," Jones says.

Moten has her doubts.

"I was standing her while she (Jones) was talking to you," Moten says. I think she's holding back."

"We had an open investigation into
allegations at the time of the death of the child," says Molly Sudderth,
communications director for Tennessee's Department of Children's Services.

"I'm not allowed to go into the specifics of the investigation, but it is a recent investigation."

Upon Tyreke's death DCS took custody of
Donamiche, Sudderth says. He remains in critical condition in Children's
Hospital at Erlanger, but will go in to foster care once he has
recovered enough to be released. A family member may petition for
custody, Sudderth says.

Tennessee law promises confidentiality to protect those who report suspicions of abuse.

The Director of Avondale Head Start, where
Tyreke Brewer attended pre-school, cited such protections when refusing
comment as to whether DCS investigators had questioned his teachers, or
what staffers might have seen heard or reported.

But in the arrest report, Chattanooga Police
state that Coleman first denied that he had disciplined his girlfriend's
little boys.

"During the follow-up interview, Kenneth
Coleman initially told investigators that Tyreke had fallen down the
stairs at the residence earlier in the day. Coleman reported that his
girlfriend (Brewer) observed (Tyreke) falling but caught his fall..."
the report states.

"Fall? C'mon," Moten exclaims. "That baby's been going up and down them steps! Ain't' nothing going down them steps!"

The report states Coleman later admitted
Brewer wasn't there when the boys got hurt. But investigators also say
Brewer told them she had seen Coleman "excessively disciplining" her
sons "on more than one prior occasion."

Had Brewer told DCS investigators that, if
asked, that would appear to have been grounds to take Tyreke and
Donamiche into state custody.

"Again, I can't comment on the specifics of an investigation," Sudderth says.

"But DCS would remove a child if there's immediate concerns of the safety of the child."

Such concerns, Sudderth says, would include
obvious signs of abuse or neglect, "or if our caseworkers were made
aware of that by the child or one of his caregivers."

Again however, Tennessee law prohibits DCS from confirming what Patricia Brewer might have revealed, Sudderth says.

That frustrates Antonia Moten all the more.

I believe she's scared, but I'm like this right here--if it's my child,Ii ain't gonna be scared, Moten says.

"I birthed that child into the world. I took
care of that child and I was there when the child was sick! I'm supposed
to be the protector!"

FUND CREATED FOR SON WHO SURVIVED

A fund has been set up for 3-year-old
Donamiche Brewer at the TVA Credit Union. Those wishing to contribute
monetarily can do so by going in and donating to the fund listed in his name.

He is still in ICU and listed in critical condition.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16373644/dcs-couple-was-under-investigation-before-attack-that-killed-son-4-and-injured-son3

Autopsy results have been released in the death of a 4-year-old Chattanooga boy.

Tyreke Ladre Evans died of multiple blunt force trauma. His death has been ruled a homicide.

The Hamilton County Medical Examiner's report shows a clear history of the boy being abused, with both internal and external injuries. The report indicates the child suffered rib fractures, lacerations to his liver and other internal injuries.

The examiner writes in his report with regards to the child's injuries, "Overall pattern (is) consistent with inflicted trauma."

Evans was taken to Children's Hospital Monday night, where he was pronounced dead.

His 3-year-old brother is still in critical condition.

The boys' mother, Patricia Brewer and her boyfriend Kenneth Coleman, are charged with murder.

Police say Tyreke was beaten with a belt.

Taylor Funeral Home in Chattanooga will handling arrangements, that have not yet been made.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16379866/autopsy-shows-4-year-old-died-of-blunt-force-trauma#.TvOoCi6yLCs.facebook

Preliminary Hearing For Mother, Boyfriend Accused Of Killing Toddler Set For Jan. 10

posted December 28, 2011

A 23-year-old Chattanooga woman and her boyfriend charged with
killing her four-year-old son appeared briefly in Hamilton County
General Sessions Court Wednesday and agreed to waive their rights to
preliminary hearings within 10 days to give the woman’s family time to
find her an attorney.

Instead, the preliminary hearing for Patricia Alexander Brewer and
Kenneth Dewayne Coleman, 21, will be held on Jan. 10, Judge David Bales said.

Coleman will be represented by an attorney from the public defender’s
office, but Brewer’s family – who filled nearly a whole row of seats in
the courtroom – told the judge they plan to come up with the money to
hire her a defense attorney of her choosing.

The charges grow out of the death of four-year-old Tyreke Evans and the
savage beating of his three-year-old brother, Donamiche Brewer, who
suffered liver damage and other severe injuries.

Police announced Tuesday that the younger child has been released from the hospital and is in the care of relatives.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_216212.asp

If allegations of abuse are true, a judge said a 4-year-old boy lived
in a "house of horrors" before his death as he sent criminal charges
against the mother and her boyfriend to the grand jury on Tuesday.


Hamilton County Sessions Court Judge David Bales then set a $4
million bond for Kenneth Coleman and a $3 million bond for Patricia
Brewer.


He also required that neither have any contact with the boy's
surviving 3-year-old brother, who was hospitalized from his injuries.


On Dec. 19, 2011, Tyre'ke Evans, 4, died of liver lacerations and a
swollen brain shortly after Brewer and Coleman brought him to Erlanger
hospital, according to the medical examiner's report.


Coleman's attorney, Bill Speek, argued Tuesday that previous
investigations on Brewer by the Tennessee Department of Children's
Services show the children were abused before his client met Brewer.


"I think the records are going to indicate that Ms. Brewer was a lot
more involved in the discipline and injuries to these children than we
were able to tell in this preliminary hearing," Speek said after the
hearing.


"A lot of the indications on the autopsy deal with scars; those scars are pre-existing injuries," Speek said.


Assistant District Attorney Charlie Minor objected multiple times to
questions related to the Children's Services records. He cited state law
and previous cases that prevent information in such records from being
used in court.


Brewer's attorney, Lloyd Levitt, clarified that the records could be
used in court if they contained evidence that could prove his client did
not commit the crime.


Those records likely will be held under court seal, which is allowed by state law.


Speek said after the hearing that, if the Hamilton County grand jury
indicts Coleman and Brewer, he'll request separate trials since a letter
written by Brewer to Bales blames his client for the crime.


Chattanooga Police Department Detective Jay Evan Montgomery testified
Tuesday that, when he interviewed both Coleman and Brewer at the
hospital the night they brought Tyre'ke in, they each told him the
little boy fell down stairs in the couple's home at 1940 Sherman St.


But in follow-up interviews, Brewer said she wasn't home when the
alleged fall happened, and Coleman told her on the way to the hospital
that the boy had tumbled down stairs.


Coleman also changed his story after more questioning by police,
Montgomery testified, acknowledging that he'd hit Tyre'ke and the boy's
3-year-old brother with a belt for soiling the bed.


The 3-year-old was examined and treated at the hospital by medical staff, who noticed he acted lethargic.


Montgomery testified that medical staff reported the boy had three
broken ribs, two cracked ribs, liver lacerations, damage to his kidneys
and a fractured shoulder. The boy was released from the hospital a few
days later and is now in the care of family members, authorities have
said.


Minor told Bales the boys had been with Coleman and Brewer for the four days preceding Tyre'ke's death.


The boys' biological father, Demetrius Evans, last cared for them for
a few hours on Thursday before they were returned to Coleman and
Brewer, Minor said.


Tyre'ke died on the following Monday.
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jan/25/house-of-horrors/