[..Thomas told police that he killed his son, Raphael Thomas Jr., to free him from the evils of the world, officers said...]
Infant Found Mutilated; Father In Stitches
WDIV, MI - 3 hours ago
... throughout the home. He tossed his Bible outside along with other items that may be linked to a Jehovah Witness, according to police. ...
Baby Found Dead In Yard
Slaying Result Of Possible Religious Sacrifice
POSTED: 4:47 pm EDT April 28, 2006
A 9-month-old boy who was found dead in a neighborhood on Detroit's eastside Friday morning, may have been killed as a form of religious sacrifice.
According to police, Raphael Thomas and his live-in girlfriend, Betty Jenkins, were involved in a Bible study in their Detroit home when Thomas and his girlfriend began to argue.
The two exchanged words and Thomas grabbed hold of a can of red spray paint and wrote the word "revelations" on the walls throughout the home. He tossed his Bible outside along with other items that may be linked to a Jehovah Witness, according to police.
Thomas then grabbed his son and left the home, Local 4 reported.
Jenkins phoned police, but help didn't come in time. Thomas was found walking along Gratiot Avenue in Detroit stabbing himself. He inflicted more than 30 knife wounds on his body, according to police.
The baby was not with Thomas, but was found dead a short time after in the back yard of a home. Police said the baby had been mutilated from the inside out.
Thomas told police he freed his baby from the evils of the earth, leading investigators to believe the slaying of the baby was a form of religious sacrifice.
The man was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital and treated with nearly 200 stitches. He remains in the psychiatric ward of the hospital.
Police said they didn't receive the 911 call until about 2:20 a.m., but a neighbor of the family said he phoned police at 10:30 p.m.
The child's mother is not in custody and not involved in the death of the baby.
The father is facing charges of murder.
Police continue to investigate, and the issue of the 911 call remains uncertain.
Previous Story:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/contact/index.html contact the station
------------------------
911 calls are of little help; baby is slain
Detroit Free Press, United States - 37 minutes ago
... of the Milner duplex, along with three empty cans of red spray paint, a fan, compact discs and religious books, including "Sing Praises to Jehovah" and "The ... |
911 calls are of little help; baby is slain
Detroit neighbors reported trouble
April 29
BY AMBER HUNT and BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Residents of an east-side Detroit neighborhood said Friday they called 911 in vain for hours, hoping police would come to investigate an uproar that ended with a man later being arrested on suspicion of butchering his 9-month-old son
Police said they found 22-year-old Raphael Thomas at 2:42 a.m. Friday, bloody, naked and stabbing himself with a knife as he walked down Gratiot after killing his son and dumping the child's body in the backyard of a nearby home.
Thomas told police that he killed his son, Raphael Thomas Jr., to free him from the evils of the world, officers said.
Authorities said Friday that they are investigating how the calls were handled. The incident marks at least the second investigation police have launched into 911 calls this month.
Paris Canty, who lives across the street from the Thomas home in the 8900 block of Milner, said the killing might have been avoided if police had taken neighbors' initial 911 calls more seriously.
"If the first call would have been responded to, maybe none of this would have happened," Canty said.
Detroit Police spokesman James Tate acknowledged that 911 dispatchers received at least four calls about the incident. Police didn't respond to the first 911 call because the report was of illegal dumping -- not a high priority for a city that has to deal with multiple shootings and other violent crimes on any given night, Tate said.
In early April, police promised to investigate the emergency dispatch line after news reports surfaced about a February case in which then-5-year-old Robert Turner's calls about his ailing mother were dismissed as pranks.
His mother, 46-year-old Sherrill Turner, died of complications from an enlarged heart.
Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger filed a lawsuit in that case, and brought to light another incident in which dispatchers didn't believe a woman who called to report she'd been shot in the head. That woman, Lorraine Hayes, told dispatchers she was dying. She's now a paraplegic.
Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings refused to answer questions Friday about young Raphael's death.
Canty, 37, said his wife called 911 about 10:40 p.m. Thursday when the couple heard screaming and saw a man throwing furniture across his front and side lawns.
Canty also called a neighbor and asked her to call 911, hoping police would respond faster if more residents spoke up. Canty called again at about midnight, he said, because the tirade hadn't stopped.
Tate said police did respond to a 1 a.m. 911 call about vehicles along Milner being spray-painted with Biblical verses.
Tate said police knocked on the door where Raphael Thomas lives with a woman and their infant son, but no one responded.
"We have disturbances all day long," Tate said. "When you're talking about priority runs, that goes to the calls that are in the process of being violent.
"There was no indication that anyone was harmed or that there was even a threat of anyone being harmed" in the Thomas case, he said.
Because officers can't handle the volume of calls, 911 dispatchers prioritize calls by severity, Tate said. No one reported an assault or said the man had a weapon, so the call was not treated as a high priority.
Tate also said Friday's stabbing doesn't parallel the other 911 complaints because, in this case, neither police nor neighbors suspected the situation would turn deadly.
Canty said that's little consolation.
"Any time there's a disturbance or dispute in the neighborhood, I think someone should come out and take a look at it," said Canty, who lives with his wife and four children.
Canty said that he and his wife, Wanda Canty, at first thought his neighbor was "dumping" -- or tossing out his belongings because he was being evicted. That's what Wanda Canty told the 911 dispatcher, he said.
About midnight, he said, he still heard a commotion. He called 911 again, he said, and told the dispatcher that officers needed to investigate.
He learned from a neighbor about the stabbing Friday morning.
"It just brought tears to our eyes," said Paris Canty, whose youngest child is 6 months old. "It was very disturbing; 911 is supposed to be help for us, for the community all around. ... Nothing got done and this is the end result."
Canty said he'd seen the elder Raphael Thomas before, but didn't know him. The family didn't appear to have other children, he said, and had moved into the Milner duplex about seven months ago.
He said the 911 dispatcher he talked to was polite and responsive, so he was surprised when police hadn't arrived by 12:30 a.m., when he finally went to bed.
Tate didn't know whether Thomas' child was still alive when the officers who arrived at 1:24 a.m. knocked on the door.
Police returned at 2:42 a.m. after getting a call about a man walking, bloody and naked, down Gratiot with a knife. They took the knife from him and tried to decipher his ramblings about his dead son, said Police Sgt. Omar Feliciano.
Soon after, officers discovered young Raphael's mutilated body in a backyard on Clarion.
His father suffered from dozens of self-inflicted stab wounds and was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital for medical treatment. Psychiatrists were evaluating him as well, Feliciano said.
Charges were pending Friday evening
.
A smashed-out television, stereo and coffee table lay Friday on the front sidewalk and adjoining vacant lot of the Milner duplex, along with three empty cans of red spray paint, a fan, compact discs and religious books, including "Sing Praises to Jehovah" and "The Story of Jonah."
Police said Thomas used the spray paint to write "Last Days" on the sidewalk in front of his house. He also painted "Acts 17:24" on the sidewalk and on a white car parked a few houses down the street.
The Biblical verse reads: "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands."
Contact AMBER HUNT at 313-222-2708 or [email protected]. Contact BEN SCHMITT at 313-223-4296 or [email protected].
