EVERETT — A Lynnwood woman accused of throwing her 1-year-old nephew out a window earlier this month is now charged with assault.
Snohomish County prosecutors want Beteha Kebede to remain held on $250,000 bail, saying that she is a danger to the community and a flight risk. Kebede, 38, has ties to Ethiopia.
Kebede allegedly told police she threw her nephew out a second-story window to prevent someone from killing her or her children. She was unable to explain who wanted to harm her.
The boy suffered a fractured skull and brain bleeding, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Elise Deschenes wrote in charging papers.
The prosecutor charged Kebede with first-degree assault of a child.
The woman’s relatives told detectives that Kebede’s own children were removed from her care in California because of ongoing mental health issues.
Kebede reportedly was visiting the family in Lynnwood. The child’s parents weren’t home at the time of the July 3 incident. Other relatives were caring for the boy.
They told detectives that Kebede was alone with the boy and then quickly left.
A downstairs neighbor heard the boy’s fall and spotted him on the ground. He was limp and bleeding. She rushed the boy upstairs to relatives, who called 911.
Around the same time a nearby business owner called 911 after encountering a distressed woman. A Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy located Kebede. She reportedly told him that someone was trying to kill her. She also said that she had thrown her nephew out of the house. The deputy called for paramedics, believing that the woman was suffering from a mental health crisis.
Meanwhile, the deputy saw firefighters at a nearby home and determined that they were there for reports of a child who had fallen out a window.
Kebede allegedly told the deputy that was the house where she had thrown a baby out a window. He detained her for further investigation.
She later reportedly told sheriff’s detectives that she tossed the boy after a phone call with someone in California. She said she believed that “they” were going to kill her and her children, Deschenes wrote.
She allegedly re-enacted how she threw the boy from the window. Detectives said she didn’t show any “emotion or remorse” for her actions.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com
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