As tiny Jaden Jordan lay clinging to life in a Manhattan hospital, cops hauled away his mother’s live-in boyfriend, accused of beating the boy into life support — driving him to court in handcuffs Wednesday to face felony assault and possibly attempted murder charges.
Salvatore Lucchesse, 24, kept his hooded head down while cops led him out of Coney Island’s 61st Precinct for the drive to Brooklyn Criminal Court.
He ignored the reporters and photographers shouting, “What happened?” and “Do you feel sorry?” and “Why’d you do it?”
Jaden, meanwhile, remains at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan, on life support after what law enforcement suspects was a hellish series of abuses that culminated Monday with a potentially fatal blow to the head.
Just days prior, the Administration for Children’s Services had responded to an anonymous report that the child was being disciplined by being kept in a dog crate. But that visit went nowhere — the anonymous caller had accidentally given the wrong address.
Somehow, ACS failed to locate Jaden, 3, and possibly prevent the abuse. Now, the agency says it is continuing the investigation.
The agency admitted Wednesday child welfare workers had responded Saturday to an anonymous report that the child was being kept in a dog crate as punishment — but the caller had mistakenly given the wrong address.
It took ACS until Monday to find the family’s Gravesend, Brooklyn, apartment.
“We then promptly responded to the location in question and began what is now a highly active investigation,” a spokeswoman said.
The city Department of Investigation is also looking into what happened to the boy — and whether ACS dropped the ball.
DOI Commissioner Mark Peters has asked the state Office of Children and Family Services to secure and forward all ACS records on the boy.
“DOI has continued to request numerous ACS records on specific child protective investigations and foster care oversight,” Peters said in a press statement.
Lucchesse had been alone babysitting Jaden at the Gravesend apartment he shares with the boy’s mother, Raven Haynes, on Monday when he called 911, claiming the boy “fell” in the shower, according to law enforcement sources.
Paramedics rushed to the scene — an apartment reeking of marijuana. Jaden had suffered severe trauma to the front of his head and to his chest, and was unconscious, with Lucchesse desperately trying to revive him with chest compressions.
EMTs rushed the boy to Coney Island Hospital, where he was placed on life support. He was later moved to Columbia Presbyterian in Manhattan.
Lucchesse has claimed to cops that the boy had soiled his pants, and fell face-first in the tub when he tried to clean the boy up.
