A 9-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl in Ohio are facing charges of rape and attempted murder after an attack on a 5-year-old girl in a Cleveland field, the authorities said on Wednesday.
The girl and boy were charged with attempted murder, four counts of rape, two counts of felonious assault, strangulation, and kidnapping in the attack last month, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
In a post on Facebook this month, the victim’s mother gave a horrific account of the injuries to her daughter.
She said that on Sept. 13 her daughter was found “unresponsive, bloody with her hair pulled from her scalp” and “covered in bruises” among other injuries sustained in the attack.
“My daughter did not look like herself,” she added in the Facebook post.
The New York Times is not naming the mother or her daughter because the newspaper typically does not identify victims of sex crimes.
The 5-year-old girl had been left with a family member while her mother underwent a medical procedure when she left the home and couldn’t be found, the mother said. When the mother arrived at the home, her daughter was being treated by emergency responders, she said. It is unclear what the girl’s current condition is.
On Oct. 7, the Cleveland Division of Police posted a statement on its Facebook page saying that the department was aware of a social media post about a current case. It added that the police were “actively investigating” and unable to share information.
The department said in a statement on Wednesday that it began investigating “a case involving multiple children under the age of 10, both as victims and as suspects of the investigation” on Sept. 13.
The Police Department declined to comment further, citing the possibility of jeopardizing the case as well violating the constitutional rights and privacy of the people involved.
The prosecutor’s office in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced the charges on Wednesday, saying it was still receiving information and obtaining evidence. Lexi Bauer, a spokeswoman for the office, said that the charges were filed in juvenile court on Wednesday and the two children who have been accused would be arraigned at a later date.
In Ohio, a juvenile suspect must be 14 or older for the case to be eligible to be transferred to adult court, Ms. Bauer said.
Rylee Kirk reports on breaking news, trending topics and major developing stories for The Times.
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