WARNING: This story contains some graphic details of the horrific series of events that occurred on Wednesday night. We are sharing these details, and withholding some others, to show the impact of the nature of the crime may have had on the other children in the house and the responding officers. Reader discretion is advised.
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- Police say a father killed his 5-year-old boy and then buried the child in a backyard.
According DeKalb County Police spokesperson Shiera Campbell, Montrais Boyd is accused of killing the boy with a kitchen knife and then burying him in the backyard of a home on Rock Pine Drive Wednesday, Feb. 22.
According to police, the boy had been living with his grandmother and several other children at the house for about a month. The children were apparently inside the home when the horrific act occurred. The boy's mother and the grandmother were not at home.
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The boy's parents lived out of state and had come into town on Tuesday to visit the him.
When the child's mother and grandmother returned to the house on Wednesday night, other children in the house told them that Boyd had just killed the little boy. The grandmother told them to run and she called 911.
The mother dug the child up "with her bare hands" and attempted to take him to hospital when she was met by police at the home, Campbell said.
A witness described the scene to 11Alive's Chris Hopper.
“She came out the house hollering and screaming and she was holding something in her hands,” the neighbor said. “I thought it was a baby she was rocking.”
Police took Boyd, 25, into custody without incident. Police said they don't know of a potential motive behind the murder.
“It was just crazy. I just felt like it was a movie,” the witness told 11Alive.
It's not known why the boy was living with the grandmother, or if the father had attacked any of the other children.
The police department's chaplain was brought in to speak with the responding officers about what they had seen, Campbell said.
The witness remembered the slain boy as "real respectable. Happy."
"I'm just trying to figure out why did the man kill the baby?"
