Accused Bridgeport child killer appears in court, victim's family considers possible civil action
Abdulrahim Sulaiman appeared in Bridgeport Superior Court Friday where the deal was mentioned, but the details weren’t put on the record.
A plea offer has been made to the Bridgeport man accused of killing his wife’s 6-year-old son with a baseball bat.
Abdulrahim Sulaiman appeared in Bridgeport Superior Court Friday where the deal was mentioned, but the details weren’t put on the record. Sulaiman was also arraigned on a new but expected charge during the brief briefing—violation of probation. He’d been on probation at the time of the brutal beating after serving time for another domestic violence incident.
Jathan Escobar’s father and uncle were at court wearing sweatshirts with Jathan’s smiling face on them, but this time, they were joined by their own legal counsel. The Escobar family has hired the Reardon Law Firm to look into a possible lawsuit surrounding this tragedy.
“We've been retained in order to investigate what happened and whether or not there were failures in the system that led to the death of Jathan and the injuries that occurred here with his brother that he's still suffering from today,” Attorney Kelly Reardon told News 12 after court. “The family had extensive involvement, as did the perpetrator here, with the state of Connecticut—DCF, the court system—for a long period of time, a number of years before this incident occurred.”
Bridgeport police said Sulaiman used a bat to attack his wife and her two little boys in their apartment on Sept. 25. Police responded to the corner of Main Street and Capital Ave. just before 10 a.m. after receiving multiple 911 calls, including one from Sulaiman's wife.
"Please help! He's hitting us with a bat! My kids! My kids! My son! Please help us! Please! Please!" she begged, according to the police report, which noted screaming and banging in the background of the call.
Arriving officers arrested Sulaiman as he was walking away from the building. Six-year-old Jathan and 4-year-old Eli had to be airlifted to the hospital where Jathan later died.
Police interviewed Sulaiman’s wife who said he’d been smoking PCP for days and had accused her of cheating on him, the report stated. She also said he previously beat her and threatened to kill her and her children. According to the report, police searched the apartment and found a handgun wrapped in a blanket in the kitchen area.
Sulaiman was charged with murder, murder with special circumstances, two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of risk of injury to a minor and criminal possession of a firearm in the case.
That's a fraction of the over 30 charges Sulaiman faces due to additional incidents since his arrest. He’s accused of assaulting judicial marshals and spitting on them at the courthouse on two separate occasions.
He’s also accused of violating a protective order and tampering with a witness after calling his wife from jail 27 times, 21 of which were answered, during the month of October. During those conversations, which were recorded because Sulaiman is in custody, both said they loved and missed each other, according to the arrest warrant in the case. He also asked her to lie and share the blame for what happened, the warrant said.
“We've gathered a lot of information already. There is a lot more that needs to be gathered to determine whether there's liability and where it rests. At this point, we've not made any decisions about who may be sued or which entities may be sued, so that is going to be determined in the coming months,” Reardon said outside the courthouse.
Reardon also shared an update on how Eli is doing, calling him resilient.
“He misses his brother terribly, and that of course if going to affect him for the rest of his life,” Reardon said. “He had suffered very serious physical injuries as well that it takes time to recover from, but kids are pretty amazing, and he is doing pretty well in spite of all of this.”
Sulaiman returns to court March 13. He remains in custody on an over $11 million bond.
Sulaiman’s criminal history including serving seven years in prison in New Jersey for aggravated assault, according to prosecutors. He also has several prior convictions in Connecticut, including engaging police in a pursuit, larceny and drug possession. In September 2022, he pleaded guilty to assault of a police officer, risk of injury to a child and violation of a protective order. He was sentenced to two years in prison and four years of probation.
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