The mom of a 9-year-old Brooklyn girl who was found beaten and abused in her family’s Brooklyn apartment was charged in the tot’s death Monday, cops said.
Shemene Cato, 48, is facing charges of murder, manslaughter, assault, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a weapon in the slaying of little Shalom Guifarro, cops said.
When cops responded to the Crown Heights apartment that sits above a restaurant at about 1 p.m., Sunday, Shalom was severely bruised and unresponsive, police sources said.
Neighbors told police about hearing “constant arguing” coming from the apartment, source said.
Officers responding to the apartment on Sunday said the dead girl’s sibling told them Shalom was “spanked” by her mom after a temper tantrum before she died.
Police also found some suspicious items in the home, including an extension cord in the hallway, a branch and “a curved piece of furniture,” sources said.
Sources told The Post that cops had responded to the family’s home for 14 separate domestic violence reports before Shalom was found battered and unconscious Sunday, the sources told The Post.
Details of the prior police calls to the apartment are not immediately clear, but the sources said the dead girl’s 48-year-old mother was the alleged victim in most of the reports.
None of the calls involved child abuse and the Administration for Children’s Services had never been called to the apartment, officials said.
The city medical examiner ruled the girl’s death Monday a homicide as a result of multiple force trauma.
Jessuan Sierra, the building’s super, said the family has lived there for three years.
“The two girls were nice kids,” he said.
Bart Hubbuch, the owner of Memphis Seoul, the restaurant below the apartment said he “frequently” saw Cato yell at the kids.
“The kids were quiet, well-mannered and well-dressed,” he told The Post.
“Their mother frequently cussed them out and wouldn’t let them play with the other kids on the block.
Cato works for the city Human Resources Administration and retained an attorney through her union, the sources said.
It is not immediately known who the attorney is.
