BUFFALO, NY – A mother in New York has been charged with child endangerment after her two-year-old son was found living in deplorable conditions inside a makeshift cage. Naesha Lumpkin, 24, was arrested on Thursday, May 16, when her son was discovered surrounded by filth and with bruises on his body during a routine police arrest.
Police officers were carrying out an unrelated felony arrest warrant at Lumpkin’s residence in Buffalo on February 8th. Upon arrival, they discovered Lumpkin’s two-year-old son confined in a separate room, trapped in a makeshift cage, fashioned from a playpen restrained by a piece of a crib tied to the top.
As described in the police release, the confinement didn’t allow enough space for the child to stand or leave the playpen. The cage appeared in photos to be a tied-together collection of gray crib parts, scattered with trash and feces, with more excrement smeared on the adjacent wall.
Furthermore, the report detailed that both the child and cage were covered in human excrement, and the bedding and the toddler were heavily soaked in urine and feces.
O’Callaghan shared that Lumpkin provided excuses for her son’s confinement and living conditions, which were all dismissed as inexcusable.
At the scene, officials from the Erie County Child Protective Services and an ambulance were called in, and the toddler was taken to Oishei’s Children’s Hospital for treatment. The medical staff at the hospital found facial and bodily bruising along with healing rib fractures, said to have taken place about two weeks prior to their discovery, according to police.
When questioned about her child’s injuries, Lumpkin alleged that the toddler had fallen down some stairs in late December 2023 or in early January 2024 but she did not pursue professional medical attention.