<p>This story is playing out in the local news. Too horrible.</p>
<p>[‘I</a> don’t want to go back with him’ - East Side - The Buffalo News](<a href=“http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/east-side/article816245.ece]'I”>http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/east-side/article816245.ece)</p>
<p>
The child was beaten at least 70 times with a heavy wooden rolling pin.</p>
<p>oh my. Why can’t we do a better job protecting children?</p>
<p>And, what kind of monster could do this?</p>
<p>*Ten-year-old Abdifatah Mohamud was running for his life down Sycamore Street at about 5 p.m. Tuesday when a concerned neighbor stopped to try to help.</p>
<p>Seeing the boy’s stepfather chasing after him, the neighbor helped the man, Ali Mohamed Mohamud, catch up with the child.</p>
<p>The boy didn’t want to go home with Mohamud.</p>
<p>“I told the boy, ‘Daddy promises nothing is going to happen,’” the neighbor later told The Buffalo News.</p>
<p>“The boy said to me: ‘No, he always says that.’”</p>
<p>Less than six hours later, Abdifatah was dead, brutally beaten, and his stepfather, Ali Mohamed Mohamud, was under arrest.</p>
<p>The boy was tied to a chair with duct tape, a sock stuffed in his mouth, and he was beaten with a stick or blunt object in the basement of their Guilford Street home, near the Broadway Market, authorities said.</p>
<p>The stepfather was angry because the boy, a fifth-grader at the International Preparatory School on Clinton Street, had fallen behind in his homework, law enforcement officials said.*</p>
<p>I can’t believe any adult wouldn’t believe the child. I wouldn’t have believed the man…especially a step-father.</p>
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<p>Our neighbors believed my half-sister’s stories about her step dad, and they weren’t true-- and my parents lost all their retirement savings, and then some, defending themselves in court before the charges were dismissed. My parents and these neighbors still have to live next door to each other and face each other every day. These situations are difficult, and the neighbor probably had half a moment or less to think about what they were doing-- and we have no idea what they might have thought they knew about the step-father before this incident. I am sure they are wracked with grief for their mistake. While I am sure we all know better, I think it’s best not to go there. It’s not always as simple or as easy as we think it is when we’re not in their shoes.</p>
<p>Emahefvul07</p>
<p>It was good of you to post your parent’s experience. I hope the neighbor in the OP’s post gets to read it. That poor person must be totally wracked with guilt and yet he had to make a decision in a split second that determined the fate of a child. He did not have the information to make a proper decision.</p>
<p>It is true that in the majority of cases, a child who is abused by a parent will be abused by the step-parent and not by the biological parent. In this case, my question is what did the mother know and where was she in all of this.</p>
<p>Now days you can not be sure of someone is lying or not 
It is sad but true.</p>
<p>Um, people have been lying since the beginning of time. It’s hardly a new fad.</p>
<p>That is not what i meant. People are more quick to jump and shout abuse, even when it is not.</p>
<p>I still would always give the child the benefit of the doubt in such a case. I would have asked the child privately if he felt it was ok to return home with his MOTHER. If the child said that he’d feel fine with his mom, I would then privately talk with the mother getting assurances that the SF wouldn’t ever hurt the child and that she would protect the child. However, I get the feeling that if the neighbor had privately spoken to the mom, the neighbor would have learned that the SF did mistreat children. </p>
<p>From the sounds of it, the mom wasn’t home when this all went down. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t release a child back to a male (especially non-blood) if the child was truly acting like he was scared to go home.</p>
<p>I wondered if you meant something a bit different than what you wrote. </p>
<p>I agree with your last statement. I’ve wondered if this is the case because people in general are simply more aware of abuse than in times past. Or maybe there is another factor (or many other factors) involved.</p>
<p>For me, I would have to err on the side of caution. Even if you only have a moment to think and make a decision, make the decision to take a bit more time and investigate the situation. Someone’s life depends on it!</p>