NY - Baby Stabbed in NY

NEW YORK (AP) -- A knife-wielding man stabbed a 10-month-old baby in her stroller, critically injuring her, police said.

Isabelle Avins was rushed to a hospital where she underwent surgery Wednesday night. She was listed in critical but stable condition, police spokesman Detective Brian Sessa said.


At the family's request, the hospital on Thursday declined to provide further details.

The nanny was walking with the baby around 5 p.m. when the man approached them a short distance from the girl's home, Sessa said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/08/baby.stabbed.ap/index.html



People are just sick. No matter how many stories I hear, it never fails to amaze me how sick people are.

OMG.

A mental patient's knife attack on a 10-month-old girl severed a major artery - and the baby is struggling to survive on a respirator, prosecutors revealed yesterday.
The grim details about the condition of Isabelle Avins emerged as her alleged assailant was arraigned in his hospital room and, in a bizarre turn of events, denied a psychiatric exam by a judge.

Bernard Derr, 47, a diagnosed schizophrenic who told investigators he hears "voices in his head," is accused of pouncing on Isabelle on a Washington Heights street and plunging a knife into her stomach.

The seemingly random attack Wednesday severed the mesenteric artery, a major blood vessel, and her small intestine, and she "cannot breathe without a respirator," prosecutor Nitin Saveur said.

"The facts in the case are horrific, the evidence against the defendant is overwhelming," Saveur said. "He knew what he was doing and he knew it was wrong."

But Derr's Legal Aid lawyer, Deborah Wright, said her client is so whacked out that she can't help him prepare a defense.

Isabelle's parents have been keeping vigil at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, along with the infant's nanny, Parbattie Ramroop, 44, who rushed the baby to the hospital after the Wednesday evening attack.

Derr, who will remain at Bellevue Hospital for observation, is due in court Tuesday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/344962p-294512c.html

Little Isabelle Avins remained in critical condition yesterday after being stabbed Wednesday.
The girl's mom, Sarah Avins, returned home from the hospital briefly yesterday, and is "feeling much better now," said neighbor Dario Martinez — one of a steady stream of well wishers who visited the girl's exhausted parents.

There's been no change to Isabelle's condition, police said
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/52589.htm

The Washington Heights man accused of stabbing a 10-month-old baby in her stroller last month told police he plunged a knife into the girl because "I had to kill something," according to court papers released Monday.

Bernard Derr, 48, who lived in a housing program for the mentally ill, said in a signed statement that he grabbed a knife and set out to kill a baby because his roommates were getting on his nerves and hounding him to clean up.

"I left the apartment with my knife ... and was actually heading toward the hospital to kill something -- a baby -- and seen the baby in the stroller and stabbed the baby," he said in the statement. "I had to do that to feel better."
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-derr1004,0,49561.story?coll=nyc-moreny-headlines

Miracle baby Isabelle Avins - the 10-month-old infant critically injured when a madman stabbed her last month - has a beaming smile on her face as she sits in her stroller enjoying the sunshine yesterday.

Wearing a bonnet and kicking her tiny feet in the air, the adorable tot, wheeled by the nanny who helped save her life, seems oblivious to the nightmarish ordeal that nearly ended in tragedy

And Isabelle's overjoyed parents celebrated the Jewish New Year with her last night, giving thanks that their beloved baby is out of the hospital and getting stronger every day. http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/54824.htm

In a one-page confession, mental patient Bernard Derr, 47, said the two men who shared his Fort Washington Ave. apartment "had been getting on my nerves and been hounding me to clean up, do the dishes, stuff like that.

"They were just hounding the s--- out of me and trying to 'f--- me' because [they are] homosexual. I said, 'F--- it. I had to kill something,' so I grabbed my knife that I bought ... and went outside and stabbed the baby in the stroller because I had to kill something."

In a second statement Derr admitted, "I was going to stab them [his roommates] and then decided to stab a baby. I knew it was wrong but I had to feel better."
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/352392p-300485c.html

It's too bad he didn't just stab himself. Awful, I know, but that baby sure didn't deserve this.

Mental illness can be so difficult for everyone, those who have it and those who must live with them. Sure wish the drug companies could come up with something better for this problem.

Oct 2005:

Derr was arrested at short time later in the apartment building where he and other supervised mental patients live. He was taken to the prison unit at Bellevue Hospital Centre for psychiatric observation...

Derr said, according to the statement, "I'm sorry now that I did that. I'll never do that again. But at the time, I had to do it to feel better."...

Derr told police, according to the statement, that on the day he stabbed the infant, he had taken his psychoactive medicine - two 15 milligram doses of Haldol. "I take my medicine, I'm normal. I'm not mental or anything."

"Those two fellas made me angry," Derr's statement goes on. "I was going to stab them, and then decided to stab a baby. I knew it was wrong to stab the baby, but I had to feel better. After I stabbed the baby I was calm and felt tired."

Click to expand...

http://www.news24.com/World/News/I-had-to-kill-something-20051004

May 2008:

A divided appeals court has ruled that a New York lawyer and his wife cannot proceed with a lawsuit over the stabbing of their then-10-month-old baby by a resident of a supportive living facility in Washington Heights.

There wasn’t sufficient evidence pled in the complaint to establish that the operator of the facility should have known that the resident, Bernard Derr, was a danger to the community, and hence could be held liable for negligent supervision...

Although her aorta was severed, she survived. However, she has permanent injuries, her parents allege.

Click to expand...

http://www.abajournal.com/mobile/ar...tabbing_of_his_baby/stay_connected/newsletter

May 20082

In 2006, a state judge found Mr. Derr to be mentally unfit to stand trial and ordered him to a state mental health center. Mr. Derr had told the court that he committed the crime because his roommates had been "getting on my nerves."

Click to expand...

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/court-lifts-liability-from-housing-group/75974/

Bernard Derr still hasn't been tried.

Case number: 04656-2005

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcrim_attorney/AttorneyWelcome

Then they can hold him in the psych hospital or a psych area of a prison indefinitely. That is where he needs to be.

Opie said:

Mental illness can be so difficult for everyone, those who have it and those who must live with them. Sure wish the drug companies could come up with something better for this problem.

Click to expand...

They've had it for a long time. Lock them away or a fatal dose of whatever.