Police have arrested a Florida couple in the death of their toddler, whose death is raising questions about why authorities did not act sooner to remove the boy from the home.
22-month-old Rashid Bryant was pronounced dead at Miami Jackson North Medical Center on November 6, 2020. According to the police report, Rashad had stopped breathing, but his mother allegedly waited 83 minutes to call 911.
When authorities arrived at the scene, Rashid allegedly had foam coming out of his mouth. The coroner listed his death as a “homicide caused by complications of acute and chronic blunt force injuries associated with parental neglect.”
Christopher Bryant and Jabora Deris, Rashid’s parents, have been charged with manslaughter and aggravated child abuse.
An exposé by the Miami Herald finds that Rashid’s parents had been the subject of at least two dozen abuse or neglect reports. The Department of Children & Families had investigated the couple at least 16 times over incidents concerning several of the couple’s eight children.
According to the Herald, Rashid suffered multiple injuries in his 22 months. He had a fractured femur, a broken rib, and multiple cracks on his skull.
When Rashid had broken his leg in May 2020, 6 months before his eventual death, Jabora Deris allegedly had three different stories about how the toddler had been hurt, saying at different times that he had fallen off a bunk bed or been dropped from a playpen. In a text to the child’s aunt, Deris allegedly said that she had “beat his ass.”
Deris never faced criminal charges in the broken leg, but the child was taken by DCF for several months. He was returned to the family three months before his death.
Days after Rashid’s death, state child welfare administrators filed a motion seeking custody of the couple’s seven surviving children. According to a court petition obtained by the Herald, DCF claimed that Rashid died after “sustaining multiple injuries due to severe physical abuse and medical neglect while in the care and custody of [his] parents.”
At the time, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Barbara Areces rebuked DCF for violating the state’s public records law by refusing to publicly release the boy’s file when the media asked for it.
Christopher Bryant and Jabora Deris have pleaded not guilty to all charges and are awaiting trial. They are being held without bond.
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