A man has been arrested and charged for holding two teens captive and physically assaulting them for months in their New York apartment.
Police responded to a 911 call Monday from a resident, who reported hearing crying that was covered up by loud music. Officers discovered two teens, a 12-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister, in horrific conditions inside a Bronx home, reported ABC7.
After an investigation, police learned the siblings had been held against their will by the accused, Michael Ramos, 34, in the apartment since January. Ramos was identified as the biological son of the teens’ adoptive mother, who died in December 2022 due to unknown reasons. Ramos, in late March, began physically abusing them, including whipping, stabbing and torturing the two teens.
The boy was found with bruises all over his body and a swollen eye. The girl also suffered bruises on her body. They informed detectives they were pistol-whipped and tied up with an electrical cord, according to an affidavit filed by Officer Kelby Castulo, NYDaily News reported.
The girl told police that on several occasions, Ramos would hold the gun to their heads and say, “Someone is going to die today. Do you want to die today? Open your mouth.”
Ramos would also beat them with a metal bat, a wooden bat and a black tension rod, court records showed. The girl told the cops the accused would cut and scrape her face with a samurai sword.
They were taken to a hospital and doctors discovered a pattern of injuries on both siblings as they appeared unnaturally skinny, reported Pix11. They also found four symmetrical circles on the boy’s thighs that could have been caused by a belt found in the apartment. They will require “refeeding” for several weeks after they were starved.
Ramos was arrested Tuesday and was arraigned Wednesday on a slew of child abuse and weapons charges, including child endangerment, unlawful imprisonment, assault and several counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
A criminal complaint filed by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said the cops also found an unregistered “defaced” black Ruger 9-mm pistol on the table in the dining room.
A neighbor told NYDaily she thought the kids left the apartment after the death of their adoptive mother.
“He had two kids hostage,” the neighbor said. “Both of them were mentally delayed. I haven’t seen the brother and sister since Carmen died. It’s just so heartbreaking.”
Another neighbor said Ramos was unsettling and would act strangely whenever she would meet him in the hallway. She also heard him screaming through the apartment walls sometimes.
“He would back up against the wall and put his hands at his waist like he had a gun,” she said. “I heard constant moaning. On Monday, I actually heard the boy crying, so [Ramos] turned up the music to drown him out.”
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