As parents, we strive to ensure our children feel loved and cared for every day of their lives. When we can’t be with them, we do our best to choose caregivers who give them the same love and compassion that we do. Sadly, sometimes caregivers violate that trust and hurt the children they are supposed to protect. A New York nurse allegedly abused a nonverbal child while caring for him at the family’s Long Island home. Bruno Valenzuela reportedly worked with 5-year-old Maverick for years and everything seemed fine, but that all changed recently. A nanny cam reportedly captured Valenzuela savagely beating Maverick, and the nurse now faces multiple charges related to the abuse.
Maverick’s father, Christopher Brower, is a New York City Police Department detective. He told WDBJ he noticed bruising on Maverick’s body on December 22, 2025, which prompted him to review the family’s security camera footage. What he found both shocked and devastated him. Brower told the news outlet that Maverick, who has cerebral palsy, had no ability to fight back or to let his parents know what happened.
“That’s the part that upsets me the most is that he couldn’t tell us what happened to him,” Brower said, per WDBJ. “That’s the part that eats me up even more.”
In a second interview with ABC 7, Brower claimed Valenzuela hit his son over and over for several minutes.
“He’s slapping him repeatedly in the chest while yelling at him to stop crying, and then he won’t stop crying. So. you can see that he’s visibly getting angry around him and just hitting him again,” the father shared.
Brower added that Valenzuela worked with Maverick as a home health aide for three and a half years, and he trusted him implicitly.
“I had no signs. If you asked me like five days before this happened, I would tell you, he’s an amazing person,” Brower told ABC 7.
Christian Nursing Registry, the agency that employed Valenzuela, shared a statement with ABC 7 following his arrest.
“We were horrified. In 38 years, we’ve never had this happen. He was with that family for 3.5 years and had a wonderful rapport with the family and the child. We’ve cooperated with every entity that has requested information from us,” the statement reads. “Immediately, the nurse was terminated and reported to the state licensing department. The father continues to use our agency. We’re heartbroken. We love this child. We love this family. We are as heartbroken as Mr. Brower.”
Valenzuela faces charges of endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person and endangering the welfare of a child. Detectives asked anyone who believes a family member may be a victim of Valenzuela to call the Special Victims Unit at 631-852-6184.
Hurting a child is a cowardly act, but victimizing someone whose father is an NYPD detective is beyond bold. Hopefully, Maverick gets the justice he deserves.
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child) or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
