Boy's Body Identified; Teen in Custody for Child's Murder

Fort Worth police and the Tarrant County medical examiner's office have confirmed the identity of a boy's body found behind a vacant house and taken another child into custody for his murder.

According to the medical examiner, the body has been identified as 5-year-old Sida Osman.

Police said Osman was hit multiple times in his head, causing his death, by a 13-year-old who became irritated by the child after they both went into the back yard of a vacant house on the 4800 block of Lois Street.

Police said investigators have obtained a capital murder warrant for the 13-year-old and have taken him into custody.  Due to his age, his identity is not expected to be revealed.

Multiple sources confirm for NBC 5 the 13-year-old suspect was recently released from a juvenile detention facility, and has a history of burglary and theft.

"It's very sad news if something happened like that, 13-year-old killed this five-year-old, if it's true what is going on?" said Muktar Mohammed, a family friend.

Family members on Thursday expressed relief to hear of an arrest, but they were still left wondering why anyone would harm a five-year-old boy.

Osman's mother, Dahabo Abdi, thanked the police and the community for all their efforts. Abdi doesn't speak fluent English and said this through her younger brother when asked how she felt now that someone was in custody.

"She wanted to see him," Ali Abdi said. "And see why, why would he do that and what caused him to do that?"

Ali Abdi said he and his side of the family moved out of that apartment complex several years ago. He says it's an area that has never been safe.

Relatives and friends had gathered at the apartment on Thursday to take part in funeral rituals, which included lending support and bringing food. The men and women separate during the custom. A family friend says they will bury Osman as soon as his body is released to the family.

Outside the apartment, neighboring children delivered handwritten notes of affection about Osman to his mother. Some read the notes to the media.

"That's not right what they did to you, you were just an innocent kid," read part of Sidow Mohamed's note. He said he was a five-year-old kid who did nothing to deserve what happened to him.

Fort Worth police said they were called to the Weber Garden Apartments at about 10:25 p.m. Tuesday when Osman was reported missing. He'd left his mother's sight about three hours earlier.

Officers began a door-to-door search for the child near the area where he was last seen, but he was nowhere to be found.  Police searched through the night and into the next morning using police dogs and helicopters.

At about 1 p.m. Wednesday, the body of a young, black boy was found by a citizen behind a vacant house not far from where Osman went missing.

Farah Osman, Sida Osman's father, returned to the crime scene late Thursday. He says he's frustrated with the police account of what happened.

He says late Tuesday night, while his son was still believed to be missing, he checked the backyard of the vacant home and saw nothing. "There was nothing in there," Osman said. He believes the child was killed elsewhere and his body was placed in the vacant yard early Wednesday morning.

Police and witnesses said there was obvious signs of trauma to the boy's body.

Family members, who moved to the U.S. several decades ago to escape violence in Somalia, were quick to confirm the missing boy's death to NBC 5 while calling for justice and peace in their neighborhood.

"We didn't expect this," says Muhammad Elmi, the boys' uncle. "We expected to see him alive, you know, coming back to the house smiling; happy."

As the investigation unfolded, those in the community tried to figure out who could have harmed the little boy.

"I mean the person that did this, man I don't know,  it's just a heartless person that just has something against a little kid," said Hamadi Hussein, 19, a friend of Osman's father.

NBC 5's Chris Van Horne and Ben Russell contributed to this report.

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