MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “You can’t blame a mother from doing what the system told her to do,” Jameka Quinn said.
Quinn said her sister, Kerra Brown, did all she could to protect her son.
However, Brown’s efforts to report abuse did not stop 3-year-old Josiah Patterson from being killed.
According to Memphis Police, the child died at the hands of his father, Terry Patterson.
“We’re still mourning a loss that could have been prevented,” Brown said.
Patterson was granted temporary custody of Josiah, or JoJo, as family members called him, for one week.
It was during that week the child was found dead on Evergreen Street in North Memphis.
“If the court system is demanding her to let his father see him because he pays child support, she has no choice but to let him see him or she’ll be locked up away from her other child,” Quinn explained.
Family members said Patterson should never have gotten custody because of former sex crime convictions and abuse allegations.
“He came back with bruises on his forehead, chest, arm. The father sent nasty text messages to the child’s mom talking about what he going to do to the child,” Andre McKinley, Josiah’s uncle, described.
The Department of Children’s Services is investigating this case and confirmed agents had prior contact with the family.
“That’s all he kept saying. Momma, I want to tell you something,” Brown told WREG.
Brown said she knew something was wrong when her son kept begging to go home.
However, the concerned mother believed her hands were tied by the courts.
“If I could’ve went back and got my son, I would have went back and got my son,” Brown cried.
Patterson, who is in jail without bond, is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday.
