About two hours before 4-year-old Cash Gernon was found dead on a Dallas street, 18-year-old suspect Darriynn Brown was captured on home surveillance video hovering over the sleeping child's cot before lifting him and carrying him away.
Gernon, who was in the care of his father's girlfriend, was taken from his bed at 5 a.m. on Saturday. Hours later, he was found dead, dumped on a street in Dallas, Texas.
Video Footage
In the disturbing night vision footage, Brown can be seen wearing a hoodie, backpack, sweatpants and sneakers, hovering over Gernon and his twin brother, Carter Gernon, as they slept in their cot.
Brown appears to hesitate for a few seconds as he stares at the brothers and starts looking around the room before reaching toward the bed and carefully pulling back the boys' blanket. He stands motionless for a few seconds before picking up Cash in one swift motion and bolting out of the room with the boy in his arms.
In additional video footage, Brown was captured on camera a second time as he returned to the room just after daybreak at 7 a.m. in an attempt to kidnap Carter. However, he fled after hearing a sound, leaving the child sleeping peacefully in the cot while his twin brother would have already been dead.
Brown Accused of Stabbing Cash to Death
At about 11 a.m. on Saturday, Cash was reported missing from the home. However, just hours earlier a woman on her morning walk found a boy's body in a pool of blood on a residential street about eight blocks away. The boy, who has suffered multiple wounds from "an edged weapon," was later identified as Cash.
Brown was known to the family as the brother of her older sons' friend, but it is not yet known why he would have targeted the toddlers and was identified from the surveillance footage.
Brown was taken into custody and charged with kidnapping and theft. More charges are expected to follow once forensic evidence has been reviewed. As of this writing, Brown has not been charged with any other crime. His bond has been set at $1.5million.
At the time of the kidnapping Brown was wearing an ankle monitor stemming from a separate arrest last month. Brown, who lives with his parents a half-mile away from where Cash's body was found, was arrested on April 27 on a misdemeanor charge of evading arrest in a case that´s still pending.
