Brooklyn mom arrested after 9-year-old daughter found dead with bite marks, blunt force trauma

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (TCD) -- A 48-year-old woman was arrested after her daughter was found dead from severe trauma and other injuries.

According to NBC New York, on Sunday, May 15, at 1 p.m., NYPD officers went to a home in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood after the girl’s mother, Shemene Cato, called 911. That same day, a business owner on the ground floor of the building called police because he and his workers noticed a smell coming from upstairs.

The victim was identified as 9-year-old Shalom Guifarro. On Monday, the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide because he determined Guifarro died from blunt force trauma.

The New York Times reports the girl had bite marks on her back and bruising on her head. Cato allegedly used an electrical cord to hit her daughter. Her 13-year-old daughter was home when Guifarro was pronounced dead.

Police have reportedly been called on Cato in the past, according to The New York Times. One neighbor called her "crazy" because he allegedly saw her once push her daughter in a laundromat.

The business owner who noticed the smell, Bart Hubbuch, told The New York Times, "She was always screaming at her kids so loud it would startle you."

According to CBS News, Cato’s charges include murder, assault, manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child, and criminal possession of a weapon.

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