The Television *Fell* on Him/4 Yr. Old Found Dead in N.Y.

Child Dies in Bronx, Raising Concerns Anew

By TOM HAYS

NEW YORK (AP) - A 4-year-old boy found unconscious in a squalid Bronx
apartment visited previously by police and social workers died Monday while
the city's child welfare agency was still trying to explain another
youngster's death three weeks ago.

Investigators were questioning 4-year-old Quachon Brown's mother and her
boyfriend.

Late last year, caseworkers had visited the apartment where Quachon and his
siblings lived and deemed it ``to be in order,'' agency head John Mattingly
said.

The agency investigated the home based on a Nov. 15 complaint from the
school of one of Quachon's siblings, who range in age from 5 months to 11,
Mattingly said. The nature of the complaint was not disclosed.


Also, police said they had gone to Quachon's home last June after neighbors
reported that children there had been left there alone. The mother claimed
the children's grandmother had agreed to care for them so she could go to
Atlantic City, N.J.


On Monday, police found Quachon unconscious. The apartment was grimy, with a
broken window, no heat and no food in the refrigerator. Quachon and four
other children were found without clothes, sleeping in the same bedroom,
police said.


The mother told investigators that a television fell on the boy on Sunday
and that he began vomiting the next day, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly
said. The medical examiner said results of an autopsy were pending. But
there was preliminary evidence that the child had a fractured skull, a
damaged liver and atrophied leg muscles, a police official said.


The child welfare agency underwent a shake-up after the Jan. 11 death of
7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, who was allegedly tortured, abused and beaten by
her stepfather. Reports of her suffering had been made to several agencies,
including schools, police and child welfare.


Her death followed recent homicides of three other children known to the
agency.


An internal review uncovered several lapses by caseworkers, including a
failure to be more aggressive when they saw obvious evidence of abuse,
Mattingly said.


Mattingly announced several reforms, including a requirement that
caseworkers work more closely with police to get court orders to enter
abusive homes.


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