Police: Suspect told witness he shook baby to death

Police: Suspect told witness he shook baby to death

YORK, Pa. (AP) — A man accused of kidnapping his girlfriend’s 7-month-old son told a witness he killed the crying child by shaking him and then buried him in an undisclosed location, according to a search warrant affidavit released Thursday.

Ummad Rushdi, 30, told Jawwad Rushdi, 32, on Monday that Hamza Ali’s killing occurred in a suburban Philadelphia home a day earlier, the warrant said. The court record did not explain the two men’s relationship.

Ummad Rushdi told Jawwad Rushdi that he shook the crying baby and that the infant then went unconscious, according to the affidavit.

“Jawwad stated that Ummad told him that he attempted CPR, but was unable to revive Hamza,” police wrote in the affidavit. “Ummad further advised Jawwad that he took the child from the residence and buried him, but did not tell him where.”

The warrant seeks the child, blood or DNA evidence and any digging tools from Ummad Rushdi’s home outside York.

Police said Ummad Rushdi is the boyfriend of Hamza’s 20-year-old mother, Zainab Gaal. The couple had been together about three weeks, police have said.

Gaal told police that Ummad Rushdi and her son left the home in Upper Darby early Sunday, and that he did not have permission to take the boy.

Police were at the York home searching Thursday, one day after they spent several hours fruitlessly looking for any sign of the child in a wooded area along the Susquehanna River in Columbia, east of York. That is near where Rushdi’s car was found.

Rushdi was arrested Wednesday morning and jailed on $750,000 bail after being arraigned in Upper Darby on charges of kidnapping, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, child custody interference and endangering a child’s welfare.