PHILADELPHIA -- A 25-year-old North Philadelphia man has been charged with killing his young daughter.
The mother said 17-month-old Alayiah was violently punched by Tyrone Spellman over a video game.
"My baby is gone at the hands of her father," Mia Turman said tearfully. "I have to put her in the ground, I shouldn't have to do this."
As the 21-year-old took a nap inside their row-home on the 1500 block of 29th Street, Turman left Alayiah in the care of Spellman, who also goes by the name Anwar Salahuddin.
Turman said that when she woke, "I asked why my baby not breathing. He says, 'She's breathing.' Her eyes were closed."
Turman phoned police around noon. Medics responded and took Alayiah to Temple University Hospital, where the little girl was pronounced dead at 12:37 p.m.
Police arrested Spellman, who lives on the 1500 block of North 29th Street, over the weekend.
He was charged with murder, endangering the welfare of a child and possessing an instrument of crime.
A medical examiner performed an autopsy on the child.
"His confession was she pulled the cords in the game, the system is -- the box itself -- fell, and he was upset and then responsible for paying for the game, so he hit her in her face twice," Turman said, adding that Spellman also allegedly slung the child over a chair.
Eight-months pregnant with another baby girl, Turman was struggling with how to cope. She said she fell in love with a man who had never been violent before, and she wanted to know what would possess someone to kill a child.
"You can't give me a good enough answer to say why you would kill your baby," Turman said.
The couple's second baby will be born with her dad charged with killing the sister she never met.
"I do not understand this. I will never understand this," Turman said.
NBC 10 reporter Deanna Durante said a note on the door of the North Philadelphia row-home Monday night said not to judge Spellman because he would never hurt a child.
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