Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / December 2006

Sheesh - what's up with this Don - did any of the fosties you 'trained'
to be state jailers go on to murder, rape, or abuse our children ?

Stop taking children from safe homes and placing them with murderers.
Please.

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City man accused of killing 2-year-old
By Laren Hughes Hall
Staff Writer

http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061221/NEWS01/612210305/1002

SALISBURY -- A man with a violent criminal history was in police custody
Wednesday, accused of murdering a 2-year-old girl in his care.

Edson Lamont Brown, 44, of Salisbury was arrested Wednesday morning on
charges of abuse and murder in the death of Kyla Edwards. The girl was
in the foster care of Brown's girlfriend for several months prior to her
death, said Wicomico County State's Attorney Davis Ruark.

Brown's girlfriend, who was not identified by authorities, had left him
to care for the child while she was out of town Tuesday. She found the
girl to be unresponsive when she returned home, Ruark said.

She and Brown transported the girl to a convenience store on Route 13
just north of Salisbury and flagged down police who were conducting a
traffic stop at that location.

Two deputies escorted the vehicle to Peninsula Regional Medical Center,
where the girl was pronounced dead at 6:45 p.m. -- about an hour after
she arrived.

The medical examiner determined the child died as a result of blunt
force trauma to the abdomen that caused intestinal rupture and severe
bleeding.

"This was one of the most difficult things I've seen in my 22-year
career in law enforcement," Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis said. "It
was heartbreaking to see the child laying there on that stainless steel
table with those injuries."

Law enforcement agents determined Brown had been caring for the child at
the time of her death and a warrant was issued for his arrest at 2 a.m.
Wednesday. The Wicomico County Sheriff's Office called him in for
questioning and arrested him shortly after.

"When I saw him, his demeanor was very matter of fact," Ruark said.

Brown, who has a criminal history that includes robbery and domestic
abuse, is being held without bond. He faces charges of second-degree
murder, child abuse resulting in death and first-degree assault. The
child's foster mother has not been arrested.

"This is a child that had no benefits that the rest of us have had,"
Ruark said Wednesday. "To be murdered under these circumstances when she
was placed in an environment where she should have been safe is tragic."

Officials said this is the second child murder to occur in the city this
year and the first in several years in the unincorporated portion of the
county.

The case is being investigated further by the Maryland State Police
Homicide Unit and the Child Advocacy Center.