newjerseynewsroom.com

BY AMY REYNOLDS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

After looking through the keyhole of her brother’s locked bedroom, a 14-year old girl witnessed the unimaginable. Hanging from the top bunk bed by a belt was her 7-year old brother, police reports said.

The young girl immediately informed her mother and called 911. The mother held up her son while a neighbor removed the belt from around the boy’s neck, a report said.

The child’s mother informed police that her son "had been depressed due to her recent separation from his father; the fact that he had been bullied continuously by the children at school, in addition to constant teasing he had endured because he was the only boy in the home of eight females," a report stated, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said that the child’s death is still being investigated, but as of Thursday afternoon it appeared that the situation is a suicide, “exactly as presented.”

Experts say that signs of depression in young children need to be taken seriously and that young children may not understand the finality of death.

"I don't know how a kid that age can come to the conclusion to kill himself," said Harold Pleasant, a neighbor of the family, to the Detroit Free Press.

When contacted by phone on Thursday, the child’s family and loved ones said they did not have any comments.

"For a 7-year-old to lose his life in any form is heartbreaking,” said Detroit City Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins. “But to imagine a child that young, who is so sad, that believes his only option is to do this? Heartbreaking is not a strong enough word.”