Accused of drowning his newly-adopted son in their bathtub, a state worker from DeKalb County has been suspended.
Leon Williams, 43, is accused of murder in the death of 10-year-old Kentea Williams. He had adopted the child about four months ago after fostering him, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The station said Williams worked as a Georgia Department of Administrative Services training coordinator before Kentea’s death Friday night. Before that he worked as an operations manager for the Department of Juvenile Justice, but reportedly didn’t work around children.
The Department of Human Services is now reviewing the case, the TV station reported.
Kentea was a student at Cedar Grove Elementary, where grief counselors have been on-hand to help his classmates, a spokesman for DeKalb County Schools said.
According to police records, Williams is accused of burning the boy’s feet and holding him underwater while lecturing him about acting out in school.
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“There were visible burns and blistering to the child’s feet,” a warrant says. “The suspect stated that the child was not listening to the suspect as he was lecturing him, and admitted to holding the child under water for 30 to 45 seconds and then repeating the same action again.”
A woman told police she had seen the suspect and victim in the parking lot of Serenade Apartment on Glen Hollow Drive earlier Friday. She said Williams grabbed the boy by the neck.
Williams told the woman Kentea was getting in trouble in school again, the police report says.
“You’re going to die tonight,” the woman claimed Williams told the child as they walked toward the apartment.
But she didn't call 911. Neighbors told Channel 2 it seemed as though Williams was just talking tough.
The 911 call came later from Williams’ mother, who was reportedly in another room when her 43-year-old son said to come because the boy wasn’t breathing.
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