A three-year-old boy who police say was fatally attacked was found not breathing in his stepfather’s apartment in Grand Prairie, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The child, Zyair Amerson, was taken to the Arlington Memorial Hospital emergency room by family members on the morning of May 11 for abuse-related injuries. The boy was later transported to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth due to the severity of his injuries and was pronounced dead by medical personnel on May 15.
The boy’s stepfather, 21-year-old Solnifasint Nelson, was arrested May 11 on a charge of injury to a child resulting in serious bodily injury or death, a first-degree felony.
The family told Grand Prairie police that Nelson put Zyair to sleep on the evening of May 10, but when they tried to wake him in the morning, he was unresponsive and not breathing, according to the warrant.
In an interview with police, Nelson said he fed his children that night and put them to bed around midnight without any problems. The warrant says Nelson was uncooperative with officers who responded to the scene and would not tell them which apartment he lived in.
When police arrived at the hospital, Nelson subsequently admitted to officers that he had hit Zyair with a belt about four days earlier and that it left a bruise on his back, but he said he had noticed no problems with the 3 year old. day before he was admitted to the hospital, according to the warrant.
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Police said Nelson’s story did not match the child’s medical findings or the witness statements of other people who were in the apartment.
Nelson then changed his story, the warrant said, before eventually telling detectives that the boy had fallen to the living room floor. He told police he did not know how the fall occurred because he was in the kitchen at the time. Zyair cried after the fall and Nelson put him to bed, according to the warrant.
Zyair slept the rest of the day and Nelson didn’t assume anything was wrong until the child wasn’t breathing the next morning, the stepfather told police.
Even after being told his story did not match other testimony, Nelson insisted his story was true and said he didn’t know why anyone would say otherwise, the warrant said.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet ruled on the manner or cause of Zyair’s death.
On a GoFundMe page organized for the 3-year-old, family members claim he was a victim of shaken baby syndrome and brain death caused by an adult who cared for him while his mother was at work.
The fundraiser, which has raised more than $1,600 out of a $10,000 goal, is asking for donations for funeral and memorial services.
Nelson is in the Tarrant County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
