Latest news with #Montrell
New York Post
16-06-2025
- New York Post
Kin of tragic tot tossed into East River accuses NYPD of ‘negligence': ‘We're devastated'
Grieving kin of a 2-year-old boy whose dad allegedly threw him in the East River are blaming cops for not stopping the slaying — even though the tot was dead before the NYPD even knew he was missing. Law-enforcement told The Post on Monday that the mom of little Montrell Williams did not alert cops that he had vanished with his father till May 11 — the day after Arius Williams, 20, had already allegedly threw his little son off the Bruckner Bridge in The Bronx. But still no one knew what had happened to the boy for the next two weeks — and during that time, cops botched the investigation and left the accused killer dad roaming the streets, while Montrell's mom and other relatives were frantic with no answers, the tot's kin said at a press conference Monday. Advertisement 'A 2-year-old boy is not here today due to the neglect of the NYPD,' said the Rev. Kevin McCall, a Big Apple community activist, outside the 40th Precinct stationhouse in The Bronx. 'The Police Department knew that this was a missing case, and they failed this family.' 5 Octavia Roane, the grandmother of slain 2-year-old Montrell Williams, appeared at a Bronx press conference with the Rev. Kevin McCall on Monday. James Messerschmidt 5 Montrell was allegedly thrown into the East River by his father, Arius Williams. Advertisement Arius Williams is accused of tossing his son off the bridge May 10 — with the boy's mom waiting outside a local McDonald's on Mother's Day the next day for her ex — who shared custody of Montrell — to drop the boy off according to their agreement. Arius never showed up with the boy. 5 Arius, 20, is charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of his son. Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post 'She didn't hear from nobody, so she decided to call 911,' McCall said. 'She called 911, and 911 told her that 'you have to deal with this in court. This is not a police matter. It's a custody issue matter.' 'She hung up in disbelief,' he said. Advertisement Unaware that her son had been killed the previous day, the frantic mom then spent the following weeks trying to get someone to pay attention to her plight, only to get the runaround, McCall told reporters. Although the helpless toddler was dead before cops were notified, it still took until May 28 that a warrant was issued for him to produce Montrell to his mom. Then last week, Arius allegedly snapped at his ex with a heartless taunt. 5 Police search the East River for the body of the 2-year-old. It was later found nearby. News12 Bronx Advertisement 'Shut the f—k up! I threw that n—a into the river,' he allegedly told her. On Wednesday, Montrell's body washed up near the bridge off Ferry Point Park in Queens, with the city medical examiner still working to determine the exact cause of death. 'The cause and manner of death are pending further study following the examination last week,' the coroner said Monday. 'The ID was confirmed by the medical examiner using DNA provided by the family.' Arius Williams is charged with murder and manslaughter in his son's death. 'I just want to get justice for my grandson,' Montrell's grandmother, Octavia Roane, said Monday. 'My daughter is supposed to graduate [from high school] this weekend, and [Montrell] was supposed to be here to see her. 'We're sad,' she said. 'We're heartbroken. We're devastated.' 5 The dad is accused of heinously tossing his little boy to his death from a Bronx bridge. Desheania Andrews Advertisement A Police Department rep said in a statement, 'The murder of Montrell Williams is an absolute tragedy, and the NYPD extends our deepest condolences to his family. 'Our detectives are always committed to conducting complete and thorough investigations, and the arrest of Arius Williams is the first step in the pursuit of justice for Montrell's death.'
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Yahoo
Mother of Arius Williams, charged with killing 2-year-old son Montrell, weighed getting him psychiatric help
The mother of Arius Williams, accused of tossing his 2-year-old son Montrell into the Bronx River, had met with a lawyer to discuss having the troubled young father committed to a psychiatric institution, family members told the Daily News in an exclusive interview. 'I kept telling her, 'You need to put him away,'' said Williams' cousin Berniece, recounting a string of violent episodes involving the 20-year-old father. 'She kept saying she was going to put him away. 'Obviously she didn't.' As the gruesome details of Montrell's death unfolded, dueling profiles have emerged of Williams — one remarkably describing him as a loving father and another deriding him as a monster. Both assessments come from within his own family. The horrific chain of events that led to Williams' arrest and the death of the playful toddler actually began after he stormed out of a Mother's Day celebration following an argument with his own mother, Sabrina Williams. Relatives said Arius Williams, 20, took the boy with him, and Montrell was never seen again. Yet it was Williams' stepfather, Leroy Burton, Sabrina's husband, who was standing up for the suspected murderer. 'He loved Montrell,' Burton said. 'He loved his son, because he always had his eye on him. I don't know what the hell happened.' But the dad whom Burton described was not the father the rest of the family knew. They said Williams was so abusive, to even his own relatives, that they didn't trust him around the child. 'He didn't give a damn,' said Williams' aunt, Alicia Williams, the sister of Williams' mother. 'Arius is Satan, just an evil boy.' Still, even in their worst nightmares, Williams' relatives said they never thought he would take out his frustrations on a helpless child, and leave him somewhere for dead. Investigators said they weren't certain, either, until they fished Montrell's little body out of the East River, miles away from the spot where police said a surveillance camera captured Williams tossing something into the water weeks earlier from a Bruckner Expressway overpass. The decomposing body was still dressed in the Calvin Klein t-shirt he was wearing when he disappeared with his dad a month ago, officials said. The body recovered Wednesday was found about two miles from where the Bronx River flows into the East River. Cops began searching the river after Williams, upon being confronted by the boy's 17-year-old mother about the child's whereabouts, allegedly threatened her with a knife and told her that he had thrown their son into the river. Until then, Williams' relatives said, cops had been reluctant to do much to help because the parents had joint custody, and a child off with his custodial father wasn't considered missing. But Williams was no doting dad, his own relatives said. His aunt and two cousins traded stories about how volatile Williams was to even his own mother and the mother of his child. Not even Montrell could escape his father's abuse, she said. 'Arius' mother kept calling me and telling me that he was wishing that she was dead, that he was going to stab her,' the aunt said. 'She'll die before him. He'll kill her with a pillow, or some s—t like that.' Because of his violent nature, Williams was not permitted by his own family to be alone unsupervised with Montrell, relatives said. Usually, it was Williams' mother who looked after the child, family members said. 'You can imagine why they didn't want him alone with Montrell,' Alicia, the aunt, said. 'He wouldn't change his diaper, he wouldn't go to the store. My sister did it all.' '[Arius' mother] was the one watching him, taking care of him,' said Arius' cousin Berniece. 'He didn't do s—t. He didn't raise him at all.' But Burton, the stepfather, refuted claims that Williams was violent toward his family. A police source said he has one unsealed arrest for theft of service at the Grand Concourse train station in October 2024, when he was 19. He was also arrested for shoving his girlfriend into a wall two years ago, but that case has been adjudicated and sealed, the source said. Burton acknowledged that Williams was arrested for a domestic assault incident involving Montrell's mother. But Burton said he believed the accusation was false. Burton said Williams was looking to move out of his mother's apartment and had stayed at a homeless shelter for a week prior to the Mother's Day incident. Following his stay at the shelter, Burton said Willams was acting strange, and said he believes someone gave him spiked weed while he was staying in the shelter. 'When he came back, that wasn't the same Arius.' Burton said. 'Whatever they put in his weed, it messed his brain up. I want them to give him a psych evaluation.' Berniece, his cousin, said it was more than just the marijuana. Family or not, she said she wants to see her cousin pay. 'I'm the last person he'd want to see,' she said. 'I would take his head off. There ain't no conversation between me and that boy. I hope he suffers. He better suffer. He better suffer at Rikers. I hope they beat his a–. In Rikers, they don't like that s—t. I hope they beat the s—t out of him.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
This NYC Father Suspected of Killing His 2-Year-Old Son, Tossing His Remains in a River
New York City authorities have been searching endlessly for a 2-year-old Black boy for the past month. The investigation into his disappearance has brought police to a disturbing theory about what might have happened to him – and it involves his own father. Little Montrell Williams was last seen on May 10 wearing just a shirt and a diaper on Hunts Point Road in the Bronx. Sources say he was last with his parents at a family event, per NBC 4 New York. When he left, he went with his father, whose turn it was for a custodial visit, back to the child's grandmother's house. The 20-year-old man has not been named by authorities. The following day, the child's father and his grandmother got into a disagreement, per ABC7 News. Authorities believe the man left with Montrell but never brought him to his mother's house. 'Me and him had a conflict. I'm in my room. My cousin told me that my son took the baby. I went downstairs to chase him. He was gone. From that day, I was trying to search for my grandson,' the grandmother said via ABC7. The two vanished, leaving the child's mother, a 17-year-old, and the child's grandmother in a frenzy trying to search for them. She told reporters she received little to no help in the search from law enforcement when she sought them for help. It wasn't until Sunday (June 8) that the child's mother ran into the father again and it was not a peaceful interaction. She tells ABC7 he pulled a knife on her when she confronted him about the toddler and allegedly confessed to where the toddler was: in the Bronx River where he allegedly threw him. In just an instant, the hope that Little Montrell was alive was gone. The child's mother called the police and he was taken into custody. Despite his chilling confession to his child's mother, the report says he refused to give any details to the cops when they interrogated him. Investigators say they obtained surveillance footage of Montrell's father tossing a black bag into the river which they believed contained the toddler's body. However, the child's remains are still yet to be recovered. On Monday (June 9), the child's father appeared in family court for failing to return Montrell to his mother and violating their custody agreement, the report says. The judge also ordered him to jail for failing to report where the child was. He's not facing any charges at this time. In the meantime, the police department is facing their own scrutiny from Mayor Eric Adams for how they responded to the incident. The mayor said he plans to examine everything from the time it took for the missing persons report to be filed to the case being pitched to the detective division. 'We were still investigating all actions, the actions of the dad, the actions of officers who responded, and once we have a full understanding based on the detective division will be able to answer what happened but right now our goal is to try and find the child,' Adams said in a press conference.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Bronx dad Arius Williams charged for murder of 2-year-old son Montrell Williams found dead in East River: sources
Arius Williams, the father of Montrell Williams, the 2-year-old Bronx boy believed to have been found dead in the East River after going missing for a month, has been charged with murdering the toddler, police sources said Thursday. Williams, 20, has been locked up on Rikers Island since Monday, a day after he allegedly threatened Montrell's 17-year-old mother with a knife and told her he had thrown the the boy into the Bronx River, cops said. He was sent to jail for being in contempt of court for refusing to disclose to a Bronx Family Court judge where the missing boy was. On Thursday he was charged with murdering his son. Police recovered the badly decomposed body of a small child believed to be Montrell about 50 yards from the East River shoreline near the Whitestone Bridge Wednesday afternoon. The city's Medical Examiner's office will conduct an autopsy to determine how the boy died. The body resembled the missing child and was dressed in a Calvin Klein T-shirt — the same article of clothing the toddler was wearing when he disappeared with his dad a month ago, heartbroken family members say cops told them. 'We are grieving,' the mother of the child said outside her Bronx home Wednesday evening. 'My family is grieving. I have no words.' Cops recovered surveillance video showing someone throwing a bag or package into the Bronx River from a bridge shortly after the boy went missing on May 10. 'There are moments that we captured that were unthinkable,' NYPD Chief of Department John Chell told WABC Eyewitness News Wednesday. 'What a catastrophe. What a shame. What a horror, totally evil.' Montrell was visiting his dad so the two could attend a Mother's Day celebration with Williams' family. But Williams got into a fight with his mother and stormed out of the home with little Montrell. That was the last time anyone saw the child alive. A few hours later, Williams showed up at a cousin's home without the child. When family members asked him where his son was, all he would say was, 'He's gone. He's gone!' they said. Concerned family members reached out to police but they were told nothing could immediately be done because Montrell was on an approved visit with his dad, law enforcement sources said. When Williams didn't return Montrell by that Monday, the child's mother and maternal grandmother went to Family Court. A Family Court judge issued a warrant for Williams' arrest on May 30, officials said. Williams' arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Thursday. This story is developing and will be updated.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Bronx boy, 2, found in NYC waters: sources
THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) — The body believed to be a 2-year-old Bronx boy who disappeared last month was found in the water near College Point in Queens on Wednesday, sources said. Little Montrell Williams was last seen on May 10 at his grandmother's house in the Bronx, according to police and the family. Queens Harbor Patrol found the body between Throggs Neck Bridge and LaGuardia Airport, and investigators are waiting for Bronx detectives to identify the body, sources said. NYPD divers had been searching the Bronx River since Monday. The father, Arius Willaims, was caught on surveillance video throwing a bag, possibly with the child inside, into the river, sources said. The boy's father told his mom over the weekend that he had thrown their son into the Bronx River. He also told his mother, Sabrina Williams, the boy was still alive. 'He good. He good. Don't worry about it,' the dad told his mom over the weekend. The 17-year-old mom had not seen her son since May 10. Two days later, she went to family court to report that her son was missing, but a warrant was not issued, sources said. She went back a second time pleading for help, but the outcome was unclear because the records are sealed. The mom then followed Williams after he got on a Manhattan-bound train and pressed him about their child, sources said. Williams, who was previously arrested for beating up the teen, then allegedly pulled a knife on her during the encounter, sources said. Williams was arrested and brought back to the Bronx for questioning, but has not been charged, according to sources. He was then held at Rikers Island for custodial interference. The child's grandmother told PIX11 News she had warned police about Montrell's disappearance, but was told it was legal because he was the father. 'My son kidnapped my grandchild out my house,' she said she told police in an interview with PIX11 News on Tuesday. Her son left with Montrell after a fight at a Mother's Day gathering at the grandmother's home. She begged him to bring the baby back before going to the cops on May 11. Sources said detectives believe the boy was not alive when the grandmother went to police to file a missing person's report because the dad turned up at a family member's home on May 11 without Montrell. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday the department is investigating how the family's missing report was handled. 'The NYPD takes any case of a missing person very seriously,' Tisch said on Good Day New York. This is a developing story. Please refresh the page for updates. Mira Wassef is a digital reporter who has covered news and sports in the NYC area for more than a decade. She has been with PIX11 News for two years. See more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
