CLEVELAND — A toddler is in Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, fighting for his life. Amir Bennett loves green; he always smiled and laughed and was a happy baby, according to his grandmother, Shannon Boyd.
“He was a great baby, he didn’t cry, he smiled all the time,” she said.
But that changed on Sept. 25, 2024.
“He didn’t deserve what he got,” Boyd explained.
Cleveland police were called to the hospital for an unresponsive toddler.
The police report said the boy’s mother, Aryiel Bennett, left her son with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Ronnie Chambers and went to work. According to the police report, when she got home and checked on Amir, he was fine.
That’s when, according to the police report, Bennett and Chambers got into an argument.
“I guess he tried to shoot her or shot the gun it went into the wall; she ran out of the apartment and when she came back two to three minutes later Amir was bleeding from the head,” she explained.
The report said Bennett told police Chambers took out a gun and fired a shot, hitting the boy who was sleeping. Police said in the report that the mother’s story changed several times during the investigation.
Police said the placement of Amir’s bed and the trajectory of the bullet do not match what the mother told them.
“He experienced blunt force trauma to his head; something made contact with this head,” said his grandmother.
“He was struck with an object. We don’t actually know what the object was, but it did fracture his skull to the point they had to remove part of his skull,” said Justin Bivins, step-grandfather.
Amir celebrated his third birthday in the hospital a few days ago. Boyd said her grandson is on life support. The mother has custody of Amir, not Boyd’s son, who is the biological father. She is now fighting for her son to have custody, so if the decision needs to be made about taking Amir off life support, it will be the biological dad’s decision.
“If it’s her decision, why would she take the baby off life support when he can possibly die, your charges go from felonious assault to murder,” Boyd said.
According to the police report, Bennett has had four cases with the Department of Family Services in the last two years for child abuse and neglect. A Cuyahoga County Grand Jury has indicted Bennett and Chambers. They remain in the Cuyahoga County Jail awaiting their next court date.
