Caretaker of NYC boy, 4, found dead is charged

NEW YORK – The caretaker of a 4-year-old boy found dead in a midtown Manhattan apartment Wednesday has been charged with first-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment, reports CBS New York.

The charges were filed against 27-year-old Kryzie King on Thursday night. King had reportedly been caring for the child, Myls Dobson, since the child’s father was arrested on Dec. 19 for alleged bank fraud.

Myls died Wednesday after police found him unconscious in a bathroom at the Ritz Plaza building on West 48th Street in New York City.

King reportedly told police she had put the boy on the bathroom counter and left the room briefly. Police said King told them the child fell and landed in the empty bathtub.

But police sources told CBS New York that the boy’s body showed signs of abuse, including cigarette burns and bruises.

King, who family members said was dating Dobson’s father, confessed to striking the child after he was “acting out,” sources told the station. King claimed she struck the boy with her hands, a belt and a wire hanger, authorities said.  The babysitter said she disciplined the child “for doing things he wasn’t supposed to do,” sources said.

Myls’ mother, who had lost custody of the boy in September 2011, spoke publicly Friday.

"I always wanted the best for my son," Ashlee Dobson told reporters, according to CBS New York.

“This family is distraught, the mother is in extreme pain as she was working very hard to get her life together so as to once again gain custody of her son and raise him with the love that only a mother can give, now she can’t do that,” attorney Philip Lights said in a statement.

The medical examiner’s office will determine the child’s cause of death.