A 12-year-old girl and her mother survived a horrific attack at the hands of someone they loved and trusted. Karizma Dabeny, 31, tried to get help while her husband, 28-year-old Joshua Burnside, attacked the mother and her young daughter. Burnside is accused of a crime so heinous, it’s unimaginable anyone could even think to hurt a child the way police say he did.
The New York Post reported that Burnside, the 12-year-old’s stepfather, allegedly went on a deranged stabbing spree inside the family’s apartment in the Bronx, New York. He reportedly stabbed Dabeny, who works as a model, in the stomach and slashed her face. But what happened to the child is so much worse.
A witness told the Post that Burnside shoved a “tool” so far up the child’s nose that a drill bit landed in her eye. If that weren’t enough, Burnside is also accused of stabbing the innocent child in the face. Both the mother and daughter were covered in blood following the attack. In addition to Dabeny and her daughter, Burnside’s children — a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl — were home at the time of the attack, and thankfully, unharmed.
“She was kicking my door and screaming something like, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’” an anonymous neighbor told the Post.
When police arrived, Burnfield reportedly refused to open the door. Officers tried to kick it down but couldn’t because of a deadbolt.
“After the cops got him out and got the ambulance to take him away, [Dabney] said something like, ‘Oh, this is what I get for allowing him to come visit his kids’ or something like that,” the neighbor said, according to the Post. ”’I allow him to come see the kids, and that’s what ended up happening.’”
Emergency responders rushed the 12-year-old girl to Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center in Queens. She reportedly underwent surgery to remove the drill bit from her eye.
Prosecutors charged Burnside with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and causing injury to a child. Sources told the Post they expect an upgraded charge of attempted murder.
As for the child, a tipster told the Post, “She’s not going to be right.”
We’re unclear if that person meant physically, emotionally, or both. It’s unthinkable that a stepfather could hurt a child in such a violent way. He’s lucky our laws don’t allow an eye for an eye, or he’d surely feel this innocent child’s pain. Sometimes the punishment isn’t enough to fit the crime.
