A barber in California who was acting as a babysitter for a six-year-old boy is now accused of killing the child after torturing him to death.
Police say Ernest Lamar Love killed little Chance Crawford on August 29 after his mother, Charlyn Saffore, dropped her son off at Love’s barber shop before her overnight shift at St. Joseph’s hospital in Placentia, California. Love allegedly beat the child to death with a large piece of lumber because the child “peed his pants” while at a park.
Saffore, the mother, apparently met Love at their church and considered him a friend, according to social media posts Saffore made before Chances’ death. The District Attorney says Love hit the boy repeatedly with a large board, and then poured stinging hydrogen peroxide on his wounds. The man then forced Chance to do push-ups and jumping jacks, they say.
Surveillance footage caught Love going into his barber shop carrying the piece of wood he would use to beat the child just three hours later. The DA’s office said Chance was following Love reluctantly in the footage.
After the attack Chance lost consciousness and was having difficulty breathing when Love drove the boy he attacked to a local hospital at 1:30 in the morning. Doctors immediately saw the boy had been beaten; they noticed the skin was missing from his buttocks, he was bleeding in his brain, and had other wounds that looked like they came from severe shaking.
It gets worse. Doctors found evidence that little Chance had previously suffered a fractured shoulder blade, prompting speculation that he had been violently bused before. By September 3, Chance died from his injuries.
Chance’s father, Vance Crawford, posted to social media that his anger was “unmatched,” and he was on a crusade for justice. The boy’s mother, Charlyn Saffore, described her son as “a light to the world he lived in.”
Accused murderer Love had a reputation for bad behavior, according to a member of the church where he met Chance’s mother, Amazing Church in Lake Elsinore. The member said the church suspended him for inappropriate behavior to female church members.
Love was arraigned on September 4 and is in jail without bail. If convicted he may spend up to 37 years in prison.