California barber is accused of beating a 6-year-old to death with a piece of lumber after the child wet himself

A California barber has been charged with murdering and torturing a 6-year-old boy by beating him with a piece of lumber after the child peed his pants, authorities say.

Ernest Lamar Love, 41, has been charged with murder, torture and child abuse causing death, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts, according to reports.

The incident happened on August 29 around 6:30 p.m., when Love was tasked with babysitting Chance Crawford, while his mother worked the night shift at a hospital.

Video surveillance shows Love walking into his barber shop with a large piece of raw lumber “with a reluctant Chance following behind him,” the DA’s office said.

Three hours later, at 1.30 a.m., Love allegedly carried the first grader — who was unconscious and struggling to breathe — into the emergency room.

That’s when doctors found injuries consistent with violent shaking, including flesh missing from his buttocks, exposed wounds, subdural hematoma and extreme brain swelling, the DA’s office said. The six-year-old also had a fracture on his shoulder blade.

Prosecutors accused Love of beating the first grader with the piece of lumber, then pouring hydrogen peroxide on the open wounds before forcing the boy to do push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks.

Authorities said the barber was mad that the boy wet hispants while at a park in Placentia.

After the child collapsed from the alleged attack, Love drove the boy to the emergency room instead of calling 911, the DA’s office said. Crawford died from his injuries on September 3.

Love is being held in jail without bond. He faces a maximum sentence life behind bars plus five years if convicted on all charges, the DA’s office said.

Crawford’s family is now mourning the great loss of the little boy.

“The more and more that I explain what happened, the more angry I feel,” the boy’s father Vance Crawford told ABC7. “He’s six years old. I wanted to see my son graduate.”

“He lived a happy life. He was great. He was a great kid,” Crawford said. “I love my son. I miss him so much. He didn’t deserve that.”

“That kid was sweet,” the child’s great-aunt Carmen Hill told ABC7. “What kind of monster are you?”

“This is killing us slowly because no child deserves to get treated like this,” the boy’s cousin Aisha Herrell told the outlet.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to cover funeral expenses, sayin g they are seeking “justice” for Crawford. The Orange County district attorney said he is is seeking the same.

“While his new classmates were celebrating the end of the first week of first grade, Chance’s seat in his classroom was empty as he fought for his life in a hospital bed,” DA Todd Spitzer said in a statement.

Spitzer continued: “Words do not exist to describe the absolute terror this little boy was forced to endure – all at the hands of someone who was supposed to be protecting him, not torturing him to death. Now we as prosecutors will do everything we can to pursue justice for little Chance and be his protectors in death that he failed to have in life.”