A Bronx dad once featured in the New York Times because of the care his special needs son requires allegedly stabbed the boy repeatedly with a screwdriver — leaving him in critical condition — during a standoff in which he also held a teenage girl hostage, police said Wednesday.
Tyree Scott, 30, allegedly attacked 6-year-old Zahir four or five times around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday while cops were outside 944 Rogers Place, where they had been called for a man holding his son and a 16-year-old girl against their will, according to police.
Scott had met the girl through social media and she went to his apartment to smoke pot on Monday evening, cops said.
At some point, the dad became angry and punched the girl in the face, taking her phone and refusing to let her leave, cops said.
He gave her phone back Tuesday morning and told her to call 911 because he wanted to see “police officers and the news media in front of his home,” according to police sources.
Scott refused to open the door for arriving officers but they were able to get inside anyway. That’s when Scott stabbed his son multiple times, according to police sources.
Scott was arrested on the scene and taken to Lincoln Hospital for a psychological evaluation, cops said. He was charged Wednesday with attempted murder in the second degree, assault, assault in the second degree and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
The boy was taken to Harlem Hospital and had to have surgery, police sources said.
The dad appeared in a New York Times Neediest Cases Fund story in January 2019. The story described the boy as having hypotonia (a condition that causes muscles to deteriorate) and said he is unable to sit up on his own. The dad has had custody since the boy — who requires a wheelchair — was about a year old, according to the story.
“That is the heart of the story to young fathers: Just be there for your kids,” Scott told the paper. “Don’t give up. It’s not going to be hard forever if you stay focused.”
The dad became aware his son was ill when the boy was about 6 months old and couldn’t lift his head, according to the paper. Scott said he was working at night for Macy’s on 34th Street at the time and had to quit the job because of the demands of Zahir’s care. He found himself homeless soon after, and he and his son stayed at shelters in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, according to the paper.
Scott said he missed doctor’s appointments during that time, prompting the Administration for Children’s Services to open a case file on the family, the Times reported.
Scott has four prior arrests that are unsealed, including choking a girlfriend in January 2015, assault in the same year and criminal possession of a weapon in 2014, police sources said.
