Custodial dad charged with 2nd-degree murder in strangulation death of 9-year-old son (Queens, New York)

We posted another article on this case recently that didn't say a word about the mother or the family situation. Thank you NYT for letting us know that his father in fact had custody of the boy he allegedly murdered.

Once again, we see how screwed up the FR argument is. That if only daddies had access to their kids, all the violence would go away. In fact, BOUJEKE KENMOE had custody. And that didn't prevent this violent retaliation against his own son.

I think that once we get past the Clueless Neighbor quotes, all the meaningless observations regarding Daddy looking all affectionate in public, we'll find out that this guy was vicious and controlling. These guys always are, once you scratch below the surface.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/nyregion/queens-man-charged-in-strangling-death-of-his-son-8.html

Police Accuse Queens Man of Strangling His Son, 8

By J. DAVID GOODMAN and NATE SCHWEBER
JUNE 30, 2014

The man called 911 shortly after 10 p.m. on Sunday with a disturbing message: His wife had left him, and now he believed that he and his 8-year-old son were better off dead.

Police officers and emergency workers rushed to the home in Queens a few blocks from Kissena Park, but by the time they arrived, the child lay dead in his bed. His father had slashed his own wrists, apparently hoping to join him in death, but survived.

On Monday, the police charged Boujeke Kenmoe, 41, with second-degree murder in what detectives believe was the strangulation of his son, Jerry, who was a familiar sight on Underhill Avenue where the family lived.

By all accounts, Mr. Kenmoe and his son had a close relationship, waiting with him by the school bus stop, watching as he rode his bicycle near their one-bedroom apartment in a two-story townhouse.

“He used to take his kid to school every morning,” said James Lana, 75, a neighbor. “He seemed like a nice father.”

But beneath the routine, the family’s life had slowly fractured in recent years. According to court documents, Mr. Kenmoe and his wife, Orlie Siankam, divorced in 2010, and had been living apart before that, according to a lawyer who represented Mr. Kenmoe at the time.

The proceedings were amicable and Mr. Kenmoe took custody of the boy, said the lawyer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the charges against his former client. “He seemed like a nice, mellow guy; I’m surprised this happened,” the lawyer said. “There was no acrimony at all between he and his wife.”

Mr. Lana said he regularly saw Mr. Kenmoe, who is originally from Cameroon, walk with his son in the morning: Mr. Kenmoe taking long strides that befit his roughly 6-foot-4 frame, the boy in a red backpack hustling to keep up. They always held hands.

The family had little history of public trouble, the police said on Monday. There were no known visits from officers or child services, the police said; Mr. Kenmoe had not been arrested before.

What had changed within a family that appeared to neighbors as living comfortably, if separate, was not immediately clear.

Miquinn Jia, 18, said that she saw the boy separately with both his mother and father, but that she never saw the mother and father together. “He was a happy kid,” she said. “I would see his dad playing with him a little bit in the yard after school, talking about their day. His mom was nice and caring; she would take him to the field to play.”

It was not clear if the boy, who attended Public School 107 in Flushing, according to a neighbor, had siblings who lived elsewhere. Detectives initially had trouble finding Ms. Siankam but eventually located her at a family home in the Bronx.

A lawyer for Mr. Kenmoe could not immediately be reached. As of Monday evening, he remained at Queens Hospital Center and had yet to be arraigned.

As emergency crews raced to the home, some residents assumed a fire had started in the woods, as had happened recently, when some children sneaked into nearby high grass to smoke. Most, like Stacy Theodoropoulos, learned what happened from television on Monday morning. “They seemed like a very nice family,” she said.

By the afternoon, well after the news had circulated, a woman stood behind the police tape, shaking her head.