NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The Rev. Al Sharpton was joined on Saturday morning by the extended family of 4-year-old Jahmeik Modlin, who starved to death last weekend, to lay a wreath on the steps of the Harlem apartment where his body was found.
Jahmeik’s extended family—including his grandmother, uncle and aunt—headed to the steps of his former apartment at 2484 Seventh Ave. after Sharpton's weekly radio show, broadcast out of the National Action Network headquarters on 145th Street.
“Happened right down the block,” Sharpton said during the prayer service. “We can’t have a House of Justice and ignore 4-year-old kids starving to death right in our neighborhood.”
Jahmeik fell unconscious in his apartment on Sunday, Oct. 13, which prompted his father to call 911. Officials responded, and the 4-year-old was soon pronounced dead.
His mother, 26-year-old Nytavia Ragsdale, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child on Monday. One day later, his father, 25-year-old Laron Modlin, was arrested and hit with the same charges.
Balloons, stuffed animals and candles were left on Monday outside the Harlem apartment where 4-year-old Jahmeik Modlin's body was found. Photo credit Mary-Lyn Buckley At Ragsdale’s arraignment on Wednesday, Manhattan prosecutors alleged that Jahmeik weighed only 19 pounds at the time of his death. Prosecutors said that Jahmeik’s three siblings—ages 5, 6 and 7—were in a similar, malnourished condition.
The children, who can only currently receive IV fluids, are hospitalized under the care of the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to recover. Prosecutors said that none of the children had ever been to school, and that they had been isolated from their extended family for the past year.
Both of Jahmeik’s parents have been arraigned and had temporary orders of protection filed against them, court records show. Ragsdale's bail was set at $100,000 cash, and Modlin was remanded without bail. They both pleaded not guilty.
Stephanie McGraw, founder of the domestic violence awareness group WARM (We All Really Matter), joined Sharpton in leading the prayer service and said that everyone in the community failed Jahmeik.
“We failed that child, every single last one of us, because it was something that somebody could have said, it was something that somebody could have seen,” she said. “Two years and the baby starved of salvation. And we live in the richest country in the world.”
McGraw said that the community now needs to step up and address ongoing societal issues to prevent this from happening to another child.
“We’re going to not let his death be in vain,” she said. “And we’re going to talk about a stigma that is still killing us, domestic violence and mental illness, because it was mental illness involved in this baby losing his life.”
Sharpton committed to paying for Jahmeik's funeral. He also said that if the family does not have a faith leader, he will preach at it.
“If we are a community, we need to embrace each other in our pain and use our pain to help stop the pain from somebody else,” Sharpton said.
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