Syracuse dad accused of murdering 3-year-old son was hearing voices, his mom says

Syracuse, N.Y. -- In the past week, Marcell Washington told his sisters and mother he was hearing voices.
“He said, Mom, have you heard anybody whispering,’” recalled his mother, Marcena Davis. ’’He said he just felt paranoid and everybody was against him and out to get him. It was like he wasn’t my son.”
On Saturday night, Syracuse police say, Marcell Washington drowned his 3-year-old son Ameen in the shower, put the body in bed and went to a friend’s house. After the boy’s body was discovered, police said, Washington ran away. Washington’s sister later brought him to the police station.
Washington will be arraigned Monday in City Court on charges of second-degree murder.
Family and friends say they can’t comprehend how the Washington they knew – a hard-working father devoted to his son – could have killed the little boy.
They said Washington was a devout Muslim who ran a barber shop, a cleaning service and a music promotion business to provide for his son.




“He was focused on his son,” said Omar Melendez, who said Washington worked for him for several years doing door-to-door sales. “I know in my heart that Marcell would never harm that little boy.”
Police said when Marcell Washington showed up at a friend’s house Saturday evening without his 3-year-old son, the friend asked where the little boy was.
When Washington started acting strangely, police said, the friend drove Washington back to Washington’s 2546 South Ave. house to check on Ameen. They arrived at the same time as two men who rented the four-bedroom house with Washington.
When the men went inside to check on the toddler, Washington fled, police said. The men found Ameen in bed. They thought the boy was unconscious and called 911 shortly before midnight.
Paramedics arrived shortly after and determined the toddler was dead and likely had been for several hours.
About 4 a.m. Sunday, Washington’s sister, Iris Washington, saw him walking down Cadwell Street and brought him to the police department. During interviews, police said, Washington said he had taken the boy into the shower and drowned him, then put the body in bed.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Syracuse police Chief Frank Fowler barely contained his rage.
“This is the most heinous and severe act of violence that anyone can do,” Fowler said. “We’re talking about a 3-year-old child dying at the hands of an adult – his own father.”
Fowler said it did not appear as though Washington was on drugs at the time of the killing nor did there appear to be an ongoing dispute with the baby’s mother. There had been no previous reports of abuse, Fowler said.
Fowler declined to discuss a motive.
“How do you explain killing a 3-year-old?” he said.




The Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s office had not completed the autopsy as of Sunday afternoon, Fowler said, but preliminary results were consistent with Washington’s explanation.
Washington and the boy’s mother shared custody of Ameen, Fowler said, and it was Washington’s week to take care of him. Police declined to name the mother.
Relatives of Washington identified Ameen's mother as Ceritha Hammond, of Syracuse.
Iris Washington said her brother was devoted to his son. She fears that he suffers from mental illness.
“I definitely feel like it’s the onset of something bigger than he is,” she said. “Anyone who knows my brother — this is so unexpected of him.”


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Both sides of child's family express shock and sorrow at death and father's arrest on murder charge




Syracuse, NY - Family and friends expressed shock and dismay as they filed out of City Court this morning following Marcell Washington's arraignment on charges he intentionally murdered his 3-year-old son over the weekend.
Washington, 25, shuffled slowly into court - his eyes cast down at the floor - where he was arraigned before City Judge James Cecile on a single count of second-degree murder in the death of his son, Ameen.
Several dozen relatives and friends sat looking on - some crying openly - during the court appearance that lasted only about one minute.
Cecile ordered Washington held in jail without bail and scheduled a preliminary conference for Wednesday. The judge assigned lawyer Thomas Ryan to represent Washington.
The felony complaint filed in court accuses Washington of intentionally killing the child about 9:30 p.m. Saturday.




The court papers indicate Washington held the victim's head and face under a constant stream of cold water in the shower for 10 minutes, causing the little boy's death.
The court papers also indicate Washington admitted to police he committed the crime, but no statement from the defendant or police reports detailing what he said were provided with the felony complaint charging Washington with murder.
Members of both Washington's family and the family of the baby's mother left court together, some offering hugs and words of sympathy to each other.
Washington's family huddled around the baby's maternal grandmother when she collapsed to the floor in the hallway outside court as the families left court.
While most of the relatives declined comment, Washington's aunt, Noretta Flemmings, said both families were shocked by what happened and were looking for answers to how Washington could have killed his own son.
"He loved him. He took good care of him," Flemmings said of Washington and his relationship with his son. She said her nephew was not the kind of person to have committed such a crime.
"All we can do is pray that God gives us the answers some way," Flemmings said.




Flemmings said there is no animosity between the two sides of the family. She said Washington's relatives went to the home of the baby's mother's relatives Sunday night to share in each others' grief and to console each other.
Outside the courthouse, Washington's mother, Marcena Davis, sat talking with relatives and friends for a short time after the court appearance.
She said she spent Friday babysitting for her grandson. Her son "just wasn't himself" but there was no sign of what was to happen to the little boy, she noted.
"It's a loss to everybody," Flemmings said.

Deuteronomy 28:28- The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

Deuteronomy 28:54- So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: