18-year-old charged with beating a 3-year-old with a brick ‘because she wasn’t listening’
The man suspected of smashing a child in the head with a brick and leaving her to die inside a recycling bin in Miami Gardens told police that he injured the child because she wasn’t listening to him, according to police.
Miami Gardens police said they found Tristin Tavares Bernard, 18, inside a home near the crime scene and that he had changed clothing. After securing a search warrant, police said, they also found bloody clothing they suspect belonged to Bernard inside the home.
“The defendant stated the victim had run out of the house and almost crossed the street. He ran out of the house and stopped her. He stated since she wasn’t listening to him he struck her with the brick,” the arresting officer wrote in Bernard’s arrest report.
Bernard was taken into custody just past midnight Thursday and charged with second-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery with great bodily harm and aggravated child abuse and torture. His bond was set at $42,500. The child was taken to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood in critical condition.
Family and neighbors say Bernard is mentally unstable, according to a report from Miami Herald news partner CBS4.
“Nobody in this world would expect that he would do that, like [he] never show that sign that he would do that,” said a family member who did not want to give his name.
According to witness accounts and police, the child was being watched by Bernard’s mother late Thursday afternoon, who lost track of her and was calling out for her, said a family member who wished to remain anonymous.
“She’s like screaming Katura, Katura, Katura, where’s Katura, she started checking the room, was checking the room she don’t see the other kid,” the family member told CBS4.
At about the same time, according to Bernard’s arrest report, a man named Jose Oswaldo Sotomayor Garcia told police he heard a noise coming from the side of his home that he believed was a cat. He went to inspect. What he found instead, Sotomayor Garcia told police, was Bernard hitting the child in the head with a red brick.
Sotomayor Garcia told police he grabbed Bernard and threw him to the ground. Bernard, he said, got up and ran off. Sotomayor Garcia screamed for help.
Sotomayor Garcia told CBS4 that the child was in the bin by the time he got to Bernard.
“She was in the bin and she was bleeding on the side of her head,” Sotomayor Garcia said. “Thank God I was able to save her life.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 8:04 PM.
