NYC community tribute honors Jameik Modlin, calls for closer community ties

HARLEM, N.Y. (PIX11)  — Five days after he died from alleged child neglect and malnourishment, tributes to four-year-old Jameik Modlin continued with a large vigil.

On Friday evening, in front of the building where he’d lived, people placed candles and stuffed animals at the building door.

Various neighbors said they felt the city’s child welfare agency failed the little boy. They also felt that people in the community needed to do more for one another to prevent tragedies like the one that befell Jameik.

According to prosecutors, the boy’s father, Laron Modlin, 25, and his mother, Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, sealed their kitchen cabinets full of food with childproof locks . They also turned the refrigerator to the wall so it couldn’t be opened by Jameik or any of his three sisters, ages five to eight.

Jameik weighed just 19 pounds when he was rushed to Harlem Hospital on Sunday.

He was reported to be in grave condition by his father. The boys’ siblings, who are now in the custody of ACS, reportedly are so malnourished that they can only be fed intravenously and are not yet capable of eating solid foods again.

The mother and father are being held in custody, facing trial on charges of criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter , and endangering the welfare of a child.

Outside the building where they lived in a sixth-floor walkup, a woman who’d only give her first name and last initial, Felicia W., was among residents who left lit candles on Friday.

She said the children must have been in a dangerous situation for a long time.

“I feel somebody should’ve done something,” she said. “It was a sad story. I’m not one to judge.”

Many residents agreed that the details still disturb them.

In addition to malnourishment at home, according to prosecutors, the children had never been allowed to go to school.

Sources tell PIX11 News that ACS had visited the children’s home twice but did not take action. Our request for an interview with ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser resulted in the agency saying that it is not permitted to comment about open investigations.

Many people in the local community, though, were commenting.

Rev. Robert Rice, an NYPD clergy liaison active in the Harlem community, said that more efforts need to be made to ensure neighbors are looking out for one another.

“It’s not about snitching, it’s about caring,” he said. “We need to care enough to take the next step of saying, ‘Listen, there’s something wrong here. Let’s try to get you the help.”

Iesha Sekou is the founder of the anti-violence organization Street Corner Resources. Its offices are around the corner from where the Modlin- Ragsdale Family lived.

Dr. Sekou said that while child welfare workers should have perhaps been more involved than they’d been, neighbors also needed to be.

“People knew that something was wrong,” she said. “What we need is to help each other, not be afraid to speak up, and ask, ‘How can I help? What I can do to help you?'”

The Friday evening vigil that she’d organized featured a balloon release and a verbal pledge repeated by the dozens of people who’d attended, vowing to pay closer attention to fellow community members.

On Saturday, according to the National Action Network, whose headquarters is a block-and-a-half from Jameik Modlin’s home, the boy’s grandmother will speak at their offices.

Afterward, the organization said she’d join Rev. Al Sharpton in laying a wreath at the building where the boy and his sisters had lived.

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